Eleven Tails
by Dark Deeds Of Mine
Summary: Fallyn Rai is taken away by the Akatsuki, who claim that she is the Eleven Tails Jinchuuriki. She's their guarantee of success. But there's a problem. She, Pein, and Madara each have different plans. And they may just kill her. PeinxOC, Rated T
1. Home

**Author's notes:**

**Heya! I'm C-chan (alias, of course), The author of this fan fiction! Thanks for reading! I hope to get lots of reviews…. So… uh… I got half of this idea from a dream… well, at least the part where Hidan shoves the OC onto the road…Plz R&R! I'll stop rambling now and let you read your story!**

**Disclaimer. I don't own Naruto. But someday I will… AND WILL RULE THE WORLD ALONGSIDE PEIN (after I kill Madara, of course…)**

* * *

><p>I woke up to an empty house. I wasn't surprised- no one else lived here, anyway.<p>

I trudged down the spiral staircase that led to my room, and walked down the grand hallway to the kitchen to make myself some breakfast.

While an egg was cooking, I took my time, like I did every morning, to observe the house. Huge kitchen, giant hallways, marble columns, a freaking huge _tower_ with a spiral staircase leading up to it from a secret door- my room.

All this really isn't mine. It might seem nice to anyone, but looking at it makes me sick. It is my prison, my spongy white crazy-person-room. Like a human trash bin, except I'm all alone.

This house, a huge Gothic museum look-a-like tucked away in the mountains and hidden by forest, belongs to my uncle. My parents had been arrested only a year before for child abuse and they had dumped me on the "most trustworthy relative" who was my rich, famous Uncle Wyatt.

Apparently Uncle Wyatt didn't want me either- he already had four kids. So he shipped me off to his mountain home in northern Washington.

The guy tried to buy my approval. Checks came in the mail once a month, for clothes, books, electronics, everything. I finally had to tell him to stop. All he said was "Okay, Reena. But let me do one thing for you- I'll pay the bills so you don't have to worry about that, 'kay?" The man made me positively sick. After he said that, my name, in such a sugar-coated way, I changed it. I didn't want to keep the name _they_ gave me anyway. And so that was the death of Reena Hayes sand the birth of Fallyn Rai.

And that pretty much brings us to now. I flipped the egg, and slid it onto a piece of bread. I ate quickly- I had overslept again.

When I finished my breakfast I raced back upstairs to brush my hair and teeth and get dressed. I pulled the brush through the tangled black bush of hair, righting it back into its straight form. I stood in front of the mirror for a couple of seconds, staring at the face that really didn't seem to be mine. Honey-glazed skin, clear complexion, amber eyes with flecks of gray. Dark lashes, too thick for mascara to be necessary. A slender face with a sharp nose and chin, high cheekbones and a sloping nose. Full, pink lips. I didn't deserve a face like that with a past like mine. It was just ironic.

Just to remind myself that my face was not, in fact, perfect, I turned my head so that my left cheek faced the mirror. A long, X-shaped scar-one of many reminders of what life I used to live- crossed under my eyes and filled most of my cheek. I stroked it gently with black fingernails, and with a sudden burst of ferocity I punched the mirror. It shattered, and left my knuckles exposed and bleeding. _That's what you get for looking at yourself. You remember. _My inner voice said, and I brushed it away. I washed my hands absentmindedly, and bandaged it before slipping back up the spiral staircase to my room.

Black met my eyes, and it was very comforting. Black carpet, black walls, black ceiling, black everything. And the clocks. I had a small obsession with clocks, so they littered my walls and every other open surface- the only digital one was my alarm clock, sitting desolately beside my bed, the red numbers glaring from the small stool that was my bedside table. The floor was spotless, as was the desk, and I nodded in approval. I threw the comforter on my bed over the pillow and went to the small dresser.

Out came a pair of the usual black skinnies and my loyal old high-top converse. I picked out a System of a Down band t-shirt and slipped it on over my head. Grabbing my backpack, I ran out of the house and took off down the road.

School was normal and boring. It wasn't until seventh period, art, that something actually happened. And it wasn't a good thing.

I sat down in my normal seat in the back corner of the class so that I could observe everyone at my leisure. Today was a painting day- I stood again to grab a canvas and some paint before setting to work.

Now, it there is one person that I hate almost as much as my parents and Uncle Wyatt, it's Aubree Kurt. She's just your typical bleach-blonde school Barbie doll, with the sluttiest clothes money can buy, the depth of a fish bowl, and the brainpower of a squirrel. You just gotta hate the preppies.

I don't even know why she was in art. She was only as artistic as her paint spattered shirts, shorts, etc. It was probably because of Ian Rochester, her next target. I felt sorry for the guy, or as sorry as I can feel for someone I barely know.

But for some reason, Aubree just couldn't stand me. For no reason. Maybe she could sense the waves of hatred that rolled off of me every time I lay eyes on her, but someone so shallow would never be expected to hate with such a passion.

It was nearing the end of the period, and I was just finishing up my painting. I had put a lot of effort into the sycamore tree that was captured in canvas in front of me. I laid it down and started to pack up my stuff when Aubree walked by carrying a large tube of red paint. She kicked my desk, sending the painting falling to the floor in front of her, and stepped on it. She slipped on the still-wet paint, ruining the picture, and pitched forward, squeezing the tube and spraying red paint all over my pants and shirt.

She was grinning sadistically. She was proud of herself. It made me so mad, I… I couldn't take it. I started to tremble, then I felt my inner voice take over my mind.

It was like an out-of-body experience. I watched as my fist raise, and I saw my lips move but I heard no sound. My fist came down lighting-fast onto the girl's face, and I was satisfied to hear at least one noise- the sound of her nose cracking to the side from the force of my fist. Blood raced claret-red out of her nose, and she looked up at me with shocked eyes.

Then I ran.

I ran out of the classroom and through the halls, racing down the street and turning on the familiar dirt path into the mountains. Picking up speed, I soon found myself at the fork in the road. The left path went straight to the house, and the right one circled around it and skirted a ravine before meeting up with the left path near the house. I chose the right path- the ravine always calmed me down with the sound of the rushing river below.

Once I calmed down, I walked slowly on the very edge of the ravine, enjoying the feel of the mountain wind on my face. I heard a distant thumping noise, but I couldn't care less at the moment. But the sound only got louder and louder with each passing minute. I picked up my pace, thinking that the thundering noise was really just an oncoming rainstorm.

It all happened so fast. One minute I'm walking, and the next minute two black and red shapes whiz by, brutally shoving me into the ravine. I teetered on the edge for a few terror-filled moments, and saw the shapes stop running and the blurriness finally become the shape of two men.

Two men with Akatsuki cloaks.

I gave a small sound of surprise before falling into the ravine.

Have you ever freefalled? It's the most exhilarating thing ever- especially when your adrenalines up because you are falling to certain death. Those thoughts were running through my mind as I fell down towards the river in the center of the ravine. I was finally embracing death, and closed my eyes peacefully, waiting for the end.

Suddenly, I was caught roughly in midair. Then I was falling again, but this time I was being carried bridal style. I cracked open my eyes to come face to face with a large black Akatsuki cloud- a man's chest. I looked up to see who had caught me, and gasped quietly in surprise.

It was Pein. Piercings, Rinnegan, orange hair. He landed on the edge of the river and looked down at me. Then I realized I was being carried bridal style by the leader of a group of S-ranked criminal ninjas, and Judo-punched him in the center of his chest.

That, he was not expecting. I was dropped very quickly and rolled away just in time to avoid a vicious kick aimed at my gut.

Two shapes landed beside them- the two from the top of the ravine. I identified them as Hidan and Kakuzu. Kakuzu was whacking Hidan upside the head, so I figured it was Hidan who "accidentally" pushed me into the ravine. I stood up and brushed myself off, shaking the last traces of adrenaline out of me. Keeping a good seven meter radius away from Pein, I quietly observed them all.

"What the fuck, Kakuzu? Cut it out, you bastard!" yelled Hidan, trying desperately to land a punch of his own and failing. Kakuzu silently continued his onslaught. Pein watched me watching them, and I shivered a little at his piercing (**haha, puns**) gaze. I kept this up for a few more moments before turning to meet his dull purple eyes.

"What?"

**Omniscient POV**** (this is how its going to be written from this point forward)**

"What?" the tall girl said, meeting Pein's odd eyes with her own. Her voice was surprisingly low for a girl's- kind of like a twelve year old boy before puberty. As she turned her head away from the other two quarrelling members, an X-shaped scar became visible on her left cheek. Pein looked at it for a moment before a very small, malicious grin spread across his face. He put a hand to his ear- a radio- and said "Target captured. Meet at the house in five minutes."

**Ending notes:**

**Ooh, a cliffy! Sorry for the short chapter, but I needed to stop and organize my ideas. R&R plz, and flames are actually appreciated here, what with "constructive criticism" and all that crap. Tell me if I did anything wrong. I will love ma reviewers, so REVIEW or I'll set Pein on your sorry asses! XD**


	2. Enter New Arrivals

**Author's notes**

**Hiya, I back XD I started this chapter directly after I finished the first because I can't post anything until two days after I've signed up….. im not new to fanfiction. I have like three other accounts! Anywho, chapter 2 (haha rhymage)**

**Disclaimer: I do not, in fact, own Naruto or any of the characters associated with it. I am planning to raid Masashi Kishimoto's house for the characters, though, so its only a matter of time. I do own everything else except for the state my OC lives in. **

* * *

><p>"Target captured. Meet at the house in five minutes."<p>

The girl looked confusedly at Pein before her eyes widened in understanding, and she took off running. Hidan and Kakuzu had stopped fighting, and Hidan was grinning sadistically at the thought of a chase. Kakuzu hit him upside the head. "Bad. We are meeting at the house. Leader-sama's taking care of the girl, right?" He shifted his gaze to Pein, who nodded. Dragging Hidan behind him, they took off.

Now it was Pein's turn to give a small sadistic grin at the thought of a chase. He listened for a moment, and heard the slightest snapping of twigs coming from the direction the girl had run in.

_Hm… she's learned to be quiet at least…_ he thought, and summoned the other five Paths. They too started running silently in her direction, branching off in a V formation with Tendo at the front. They jumped, and started making their way through the branches of the trees.

It wasn't long before they found her. Despite the fact that she was top runner in her school, she was still no match for ninjas. But the Six Paths of Pain did not find her running; they found her on her knees in the center of the clearing.

The girl was hunched over, breathing ragged not from running but from the effort of something else- the effort of restraining. Her muscles twitched randomly, and she shivered constantly. All of the sudden her muscles tensed and her back arced, raising her head to the sky and she let out an inhuman wail. Tendo walked forth to observe the girl closer in the dying sunlight, and saw her pupils had dilated, leaving only a small strip of color visible.

The girl no longer looked human- her features were getting sharper, muscles coiled. Tendo could feel the waves of chakra practically rolling off of her. He summoned Jigokudo forward, and the large man started to leech the chakra from her. With each passing second, her angular features faded, her pupils returned to normal, her muscles relaxed. Pretty soon she was curled up into a shivering ball on the floor, exhausted and drained.

But Tendo wasn't finished. He kicked her gently, and she rolled over easily. She opened her eyes slowly, as if even that took too much effort. He reached down and curled his hands around her neck, raising her upward and shoving her against a tree. Her eyes lazily rolled around to look at him, slightly confused but too exhausted to really care. He looked into her gaze calmly, and she stared back like a mouse transfixed in a snake's gaze.

"You know, girl, you still haven't thanked me for saving your life," he said sadistically, tightening his grip the slightest bit.

She coughed a little bit, but managed to say, "Why should I? You must have had a reason," she stopped momentarily to cough before continuing, "Or you wouldn't have given me a second glance." Her words came out slowly and clumsily. "And my name isn't 'girl', its Fallyn."

He snorted. "I liked 'girl' better." He released her, and she slid to the ground, gasping slightly. Just as she had regained her breath, Chikushodo was behind her, twisting her arms painfully behind her back. Tendo leaned forward, only inches away from her face.

"I'm still waiting for that thank you," he taunted, but all she did was spit at the ground in front of him.

You could almost see the muscles in his neck twitch. He gifted her with a brutal punch to the stomach, and she doubled over in Chikushodo's grip, sending shocks of pain up her arms as she coughed up blood.

Tendo smirked. "Alright, I'll wait. But I'm getting that thank you," he wiped the spit off of his foot, "And an apology. Chikushodo, we're going."

He turned, and the other four Paths shot off into the trees. A sharp pain came from Fallyn's neck, and she blacked out.

* * *

><p>The other members stared curiously as Pein entered the front door of the huge house carrying the girl. He laid her down not so gently on a nearby couch and plopped himself sulkily into a nearby high-backed chair.<p>

The tall girl curled herself into a ball that defied the laws of physics in size based on her height- 5'10" – and whimpered softly. Her black hair fell in front of her troubled face, like a curtain shielding her from from the curious outsiders.

"Wow, Leader-sama… what did she do to make you look so pissy?" asked Hidan quite unsympathetically. Kakuzu whacked him upside the head, much to Hidan's displeasure. Pein turned his scowling gaze from burning holes in the walls to Hidan, who shrunk back despite his masochistic move.

"Don't talk to me, your words are displeasing to hear," he muttered darkly, and Hidan grumbled, still rubbing his head from the particularly savage blow he had recently received from Kakuzu.

"What the hell did _you_ do to _her_, Leader-sama? She couldn't have been enough trouble to knock her out, could she?" said Deidara, hovering over the girl, looking more amused than worried.

"She started to shift," he said simply, "She should be awake by tomorrow."

Almost all of the heads in the room turned to stare at Pein. "_Tomorrow?_" they said in unison, looking at the pierced man incredulously.

"Yes, tomorrow," Pein repeated, "She almost shifted- she has a great amount of chakra, but she doesn't know how to control it. I had to extract some or she was going to turn completely- and that would have been troublesome. It left her exhausted."

Even as he said this, the girl turned in her sleep. "Sounds… like Shikamaru..." she muttered in her sleep, and rolled over again- but there was no more couch left. She fell to the wood floor with a thud.

She shot up immediately, sitting bolt right. "I'm awake, I'm awake! Don't hit me, I'm awake!" she yelled, and then shook her head. "Not again…" she said, looking crestfallen. She rubbed her eyes, and looked up. "Why am I in the- HOLY SHIT! WHY THE HELL ARE YOU PEOPLE IN MY HOUSE!" she yelled, making several members jump.

"The pretty lady is awake!" yelled Tobi, and he launched himself at her, preparing for a death-glomp. She instinctively rolled away, and just in time- the masked man fell face-first onto the space of floor she had just been occupying. Deidara burst out in laughter, pointing at the man sprawled on the floor. Said sprawled man rolled over and sat up, emanating sadness.

"Why did you dodge Tobi's hug, Girl-chan?" he said, sounding like he was on the verge of tears.

"My name is Fallyn, godammit! Why don't people ever ask people's name _first?_" she said exasperatedly. She was only trying to avoid the question- it brought back memories.

Tobi's fake-sadness was gone in an instant. "Fallyn-chan! You have a pretty name! But why do you talk like Hidan-senpai?"

"I'll answer you question when you answer mine! WHY THE HELL ARE YOU IN MY FREAKING HOUSE?"

Her eyes glazed over for an instant, and she slapped herself. The room went even quieter than it was before.

"Sorry," she said so quietly you had to strain to hear it.

Tobi backed away slowly over to the chair Pein was sitting in and hid behind the high back. "Fallyn-chan is scary…" he said in a small voice. The girl's face remained impassive.

"What the fuck was that all about, bitch?" Hidan said, breaking the awkward silence. She turned her face up towards the silver-haired man, looking up at him with huge eyes.

"You know, you're really loud… you should quiet down sometimes."

The room went silent again, except for the muted sniggers coming from Kisame, who was trying desperately to sustain his laughter. He stopped, though, when Itachi glared at him. Pein was rubbing his temples, as if the whole situation was giving him a migraine. Which it probably was.

He stood, and motioned at the members to be quiet. "As you can all see, the Eleven Tails' recuperation powers are amazing. But as you also should have observed, it is prone to mood swings." The other members nodded in agreement. Fallyn looked supremely confused, and turned her large eyes over to Pein.

"Hm? Oh, yes, we forgot to tell you, didn't we? " he said sarcastically. "We're in your house because you are the Eleven tails jinchuriki. We've come to take you back to the base and have it extracted."

It took a couple moments for her to register the information, but all she said was "Blunt, are we?" This caused another eruption of sniggers from Kisame, and was joined with Hidan and Deidara.

Pein rolled his eyes, determined not to be belittled in front of his organization. "Zetsu, please tie her up."

"**Will do**," said a deep, raspy voice from behind Fallyn. She turned, and almost ran into a potted plant in the middle of the hallway. Only there wasn't one there before- let alone a huge Venus flytrap with a black-and-white face in the center. She leapt back, surprised, but an arm emerged from the floor and grabbed her ankle when she was almost out of range. She fell heavily to the floor, and immediately started kicking at the hand, trying to free herself from the vice-like grip and failing miserably.

The plant-like man emerged completely from the floor, and produced a coil of rope and a gag from the folds of his cloak. The white side of his face smiled softly, and said in a sickly- sweet voice "Please don't make it hard, you won't win."

Fallyn cocked her head to the side. "Why do I have to be tied up?" she asked innocently. "I'm not fighting now, aren't I?"

Hidan looked incredulously over at her. "You were just trying to break Zetsu's fucking arm off. You call that not fighting?"

She shook her head. "I think you would try and run, too, of there was a large plant-man grabbing your ankle." Hidan flushed and opened his mouth to say something else, but Kakuzu hit him on the side of the head again, cutting off anything he was about to say.

Pein was rubbing his temples again, and for the first time Fallyn noticed the other female. Konan was looking worriedly from Pein to her, trying to figure out what about her that made Pein so… pissed.

"Just tie her wrists together, okay, Pein? Is that okay?" she said, and Pein sighed.

"Fine," he said, and Fallyn felt the rope knot around her wrists. She let it.

"So… Leader guy," she said calmly, "Or… what should I call you?"

"Don't call me anything," he replied huffily.

"Oh-kay," she said, "So, since when was there an Eleven tails? I thought it only went up to nine, or ten, if you count that."

He looked slightly surprised for a moment, but he regained his composure quickly. "How do you know so much? We are in an alternate dimension…"

"Let's just keep that a secret for now. So, can you answer my question?"

He sighed. Konan stepped in and took over the conversation, "Zetsu overheard some Leaf ninja talking about something along the lines of 'their only hope to win' against us. He gathered some intel, and found a summoning scroll that summoned _us _to _here_." The rest of the Akatsuki were listening now, because they hadn't heard the details yet.

"Okay, and does this Eleven tails have a shorter name like the Nine tails 'kyuubi'?" she asked.

Konan paused. "No… I don't think so. Its only Konoha and us that knows about the Eleven tails."

She nodded. "Now, what exactly _is_ the Eleven tails?"

"It's a dragon- not the good kind that bring good luck or anything. Its really long- like forty feet from head to tail tip. Long neck, sharp spines, the works. Big eyes. Narrow body- really scrawny. Really majestic. Its not very tall, though. About the size of," she broke off and looked around the room, trying to find something to compare sizes with, "A Kisame and a half."

Pein was looking questioningly at Konan. She saw him staring at her, and said, "What? You shouldn't leave your scrolls lying around." Pein just shook his head and turned his attention elsewhere.

Fallyn ignored the exchange, glad that someone was answering her questions with more than a fragment of a sentence. "So… this means I'm gonna die, huh?" she said this more soberly than her other questions, but it wasn't sadness that caused her to ask, it was pure curiosity.

"Uh… yes, it does." Konan averted her eyes from the girl's face.

"Cool… does it hurt?"

Silence.

"What?" she said, confused.

"'Cool?'" Hidan quoted, "What the hell?"

"Leader-sama… Fallyn-chan's scaring Tobi," said the masked man from behind Pein's chair.

Fallyn's eyes glazed over again. Her pupils dilated, and a scowl passed over her face and stuck there like glue. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said in a menacing tone, "I'm sorry my personality scares you. It's my fault." Sarcasm dripped like poison on a knife from her words.

"Oh, dear," said Kisame, grinning in interest, "The chakra levels in the room just spiked. Samehada's having fun."

Itachi turned his bored gaze from the wall to the scowling girl with new interest. "This didn't happen with the other biju, Leader-sama."

"Yes, I am aware of that. Kisame, if you will," he gestured over to the practically growling girl.

"No way in heaven, hell, or purgatory am I letting Fish-stick near me," she said venomously. Kisame twitched.

"I will kill you, worthless girl. I will rip you apart limb from limb and feed you to Zetsu."

"**Mmm, jinchuriki.** No, we can't eat it!" said the plant-man.

"Zetsu's right, Kisame. No killing the Eleven tails," said Pein calmly.

"Can we just get to the fucking statue and take the Eleven tails already? I'm getting fucking bored," complained Hidan, and Kakuzu hit him on the side of the head again. A bruise was starting to become visible. Hidan groaned, and glared at the second masked man as he rubbed the injured part of his head angrily.

The girl growled. "What about the eyes? Is there even a place in the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path for me? I think not. I know- it only goes up to ten. Maybe extracting me will destroy it and all of the biju you've already extracted, no?"

"'Me'? Now then, are we talking to the Eleven tails now, or the girl?" said Pein, staring hard at the crouching girl.

"Who do you think?" the girl sneered.

"Hello, Eleven tails. Nice to meet you," he said sarcastically, "Question. How can you talk through your jinchuriki? The other biju couldn't do that."

She snorted. "Haven't you connected the dots? I can talk through the girl. Yet she is still here in her original form. There's no place for the Eleven tails in your statue. That enough hints?"

Pein stared angrily at the girl. It was Itachi, though, who answered the angry biju's question.

"It's inextractable, Pein-sama," he said monotonously, as if he were bored with the whole situation.

"Ding ding, we have a winner," she muttered, and her eyes glazed over again, leaving a very confused looking Fallyn.

"Huh?" she said, and collapsed in a heap on the floor.

Pein sighed. "We're going to have to do something about those mood swings…" he muttered, shaking his head.

"That's all you have to say? What the fuck?" said Hidan irritably, and he dodged Kakuzu's oncoming blow.

"I don't believe it, that's all. Last minute desperation." With that, he walked off to find a room to relax in. Konan's eyes swept over the room once before following him out.

The room was completely quiet. Even the sound of breathing had been muted. The peace was broken when Deidara shook his head and walked over to the girl, starting to prop her up from her unnatural looking position on the floor. He felt the stares of the others on his back, and once she was leaning up against a couch he turned to face them.

"What? If she wakes up on the floor, she'll start screaming again," he said defensively. The other members just shook their heads and wandered off.

* * *

><p><strong>Ending notes:<strong>

**God, that was long. Took me a day to write that…. Bleh. It was a lot of info to fit into just one chapter, so sorry if your brains are fried. Basically Fallyn is the Eleven tails Jinchuriki (it's a dragon :3), and she was captured by the Akatsuki because they want to extract her. But the Jinchuriki seems to be able to suppress Fallyn and speak through her. This is because the Eleven tails is inextractable. This will be explained in the oncoming chapters. Oh, and Pein doesn't believe her. The Demonic Statue thing won't actually be destroyed if it holds the Eleven tails, it just rejects it.**

**Oh, and Chikushodo and the other guy are some of the Six Paths of Pain. I got their names from book 45 of Naruto! :3 And I just love the thought of Kakuzu whacking Hidan over the head every time he says something stupid to Pein or someone important like Itachi. Later on Fallyn is going to take up that role with a broom. Just picture it in your mind. Hilarious, is it not?**

**R&R, plz!**


	3. New Member

**Author's note:**

**Hey! I have updated the first two chapters, henceforth, im writing the third! I have had two reviewers already, and I appreciate their opinions. **

**Thanks to KITTY LOVES MATT and Secretly Evil () for reviewing, and thanks to Dark Angel Arise, KITTY LOVES MATT, and GrimmyRayne for adding this story to their alerts list! You have received my undying love!**

**Chapters may come slower now cuz spring break is now over and I have STAR testing and I have to study for a huge Knowledge Map quiz that consists of memorizing 132 terms for language arts. So chapters won't be flying around everywhere.**

**One of the people who sit next to me in homeroom requested for me to draw a shirtless ninja for her. Who should I draw? Any requests?**

**I also just found out that the guy I have a crush on has a girlfriend, so my depression might leak into my writing as sarcasm and dark, bitter humor. I apologize for life.**

**This chapter is lighter than the past couple, so the super-heavy stuff is behind us for a time. Enjoy (hopefully)!**

**Disclaimer. I don't own Naruto. If I owned Naruto, it wouldn't be called Naruto. I would kill off every protagonist except for Gaara and the show would be supremely about the Akatsuki. But that's just me…Masashi Kishimoto seems to have other plans.**

* * *

><p>The Akatsuki milled around in Fallyn's house until late in the night, poking stuff and examining rooms. Pein spent the night in the master bedroom nursing a migraine along with Konan, who didn't even care about the Eleven tails anymore; she just wanted to go home. So far Hidan had broken two vases, one chair, one light fixture, and several doors. The damage wasn't extensive, but Kakuzu made him clean it up as punishment for wasting perfectly good money.<p>

Itachi busied himself reading the large variety of book that were scattered aimlessly around the house, some in pristine condition, others in tatters. That kept him occupied for the whole night.

Deidara spent the night on a nearby couch, watching Tobi poke at things like the toaster and the stove. He was content with relaxing for the first time in weeks and quickly fell asleep.

Zetsu was out in the garden that Fallyn tended to religiously, admiring the herbs and large blossoms. Kisame was also outside, lounging in the great sycamore tree that rose up from the ground next to the house, wondering aloud about the tower and wondering if it was a room or just decoration, and if it was a room how to enter it. He really couldn't care less, though.

It wasn't until ten in the morning that anything really happened. Fallyn finally stirred, and sat up groggily, rubbing the grit out of her eyes. She had a nasty cramp in her neck from sleeping upright. Deidara was out cold on the couch next to her, the tongues on his palm-mouths sticking out and drooling into a small puddle on the floor. Everyone else was in some other room.

"Gross," she muttered, "I'm not cleaning that up."

Deidara stirred at her words, and opened one blue eye lazily. "Morning Sunshine," Fallyn muttered sarcastically, "Did you sleep well?"

Deidara dragged his head up and looked around before settling his gaze on Fallyn. "It seems like you slept a hell of a lot better. Wake up on the wrong side of the floor?"

She grunted some inaudible response before saying, "I'd have to disagree. I wasn't the one drooling puddles on the floor." Deidara's eyes widened in surprise before he looked at the floor and saw that she wasn't lying. He flustered a little bit before muttering, "I'll clean that up" and leaving the room.

She snickered quietly and stood. She stretched, and a series of popping noises came from several places throughout her body before her stiff muscles relaxed. She sighed in pleasure, and headed to the kitchen.

The first thing she saw was Hidan, who was completely zonked out on the island in the center of the kitchen. The second thing she noticed was that there were an assortment of plastic, bolts, and screws where her toaster used to be. The third thing she noticed was colorful shards of broken glass littering the floor, and the two expensive Italian vases were missing. The fourth thing she noticed was that the light fixture that was usually hanging overtop the huge dining room table was shattered and spread out all over the polished wood surface. The fifth thing she noticed was a broom.

Finally, something useful.

She grabbed the broom and twisted it a couple of times around in her hands. Deidara passed through the entryway carrying some wet rags, and grinned sadistically as he took in the room, Hidan, and the broom in her hands.

He nodded, and tossed the rags on the counter before pulling out a chair soundlessly and sitting to watch.

Fallyn rolled her eyes and continued with the activity at hand. She circled the island a couple of times, trying to find the most vulnerable part of his body to hit. Her eyes fell on a place where no sun shines, and it was quite open for a hit. She raised the broom slowly- and brought it down with as much force as she could- which was a lot. He sat up immediately, eyes tearing, and at that moment she saw the nasty multi-colored bruise on the side of his head, completely exposed for a blow. She turned the broom over so that the handle was now on the offensive, and hit his head like a baseball player hitting a home run.

His head snapped sideways and onto the cold granite countertop, making a sickening crack. Deidara was laughing so hard there were tears in his eyes, and Kakuzu, who had entered the room just in time to see the final swing, was also chuckling softly.

She abandoned the broom, grabbed a cereal bar, and left the room before the injured man could stir again and bring all of Hell's wrath down upon her.

* * *

><p>In the master bedroom Pein awoke to the sound of a skull cracking against a hard surface. Konan, who had slept on the comfortable love seat next to the bed, also raised her blue head groggily. "What the hell…?" she muttered, and shook her head before laying back down and pulling the covers over her head. Pein, however, now housed a burning curiosity to see what his organization had done this time with a seventeen year old girl added to the mix.<p>

He rolled out of the comfortable bed and found, to his convenient surprise, that he had fallen asleep fully clothed and shoe-ed. He walked silently out the door, careful not to wake Konan- she could be terrifyingly grouchy when woken up.

He padded down the hallway, and almost ran into Fallyn, who was munching on a cereal bar looking proud of herself, as he turned a corner. The girl barely gave him a second glance as she ran up the stairs, taking the steps two at a time.

Pein was slightly surprised that he hadn't heard the girl coming, but dismissed the thought- now he _knew_ that the girl had done something.

He entered the kitchen, and was surprised to see it littered with broken…things. He was also surprised to see Hidan unconscious on the floor, Deidara laughing from a nearby chair, and Kakuzu just standing there, practically emanating a smirk from behind his mask at his partner's injuries.

The two conscious members looked up at Pein upon entry. "What happened here?" he asked calmly, re-observing the damage.

"Hidan screwed up some stuff and it got the girl pissed," said Deidara, still obviously trying to suppress his laughter.

"I didn't see the first part, but I saw her hit the bruise on Hidan's head with the stick of a broom. I wouldn't be surprised if his head is almost falling off," rumbled Kakuzu, chuckling quietly.

Pein noticed the discarded broom, and surveyed the damage again. "When he regains consciousness, tell him to clean up the mess," he said simply, and left the room, curiosity satisfied.

He heard the other members slowly filter into the room and Deidara retell the story. He walked through the hallway he had seen the girl go through, and jumped to the top of the stairs effortlessly, his cloak whipping behind him. He walked through the upstairs, exploring the new passageways and rooms.

Eventually he came upon a huge tapestry of a magnificent black dragon. _How ironic,_ he thought, and examined the patterns of the thread.

Then he heard a sound. A sound that you wouldn't have heard if you didn't stop in the hallway to admire the tapestry. But the sound, to his surprise, was coming from _behind_ the tapestry.

No sounds should come from behind a tapestry.

The sound was music- and not classical, thank you very much. It was rock. Pein wouldn't have been able to identify it, but it was Chop Suey! by System of a Down. To him it just sounded like a lot of jumpy, constantly changing rhythms.

_What the hell?_ He thought, and moved a corner of the colored cloth to the side. It revealed a small door with an old-fashioned keyhole instead of the everyday lock. He tried the handle- it was open. In front of him stood a spiral staircase- very Gothic. The steps were a rich golden wood, polished and double planked. They looked very inviting, like they were asking somebody to climb them… or maybe that was just Pein's curiosity eating away his insides.

The music was louder now, the lyrics fast and the band exciting. It really didn't help- it fit the situation perfectly.

He climbed the stairs slowly, his feet not making a sound on the smooth wood. About halfway up, though, he heard Hidan's voice from downstairs, yelling something about talking to Pein. He ran quietly back down the stairs and back into the hallway, getting a facefull of tapestry, shutting the door quietly behind him. He slipped to the side, trying to get out of the cloth, but as he was almost out a few loose threads caught on his facial adornments.

He twisted and turned, and managed to free himself from the string. Walking briskly back down the hall, he jumped back down the stairs and managed to have enough time to compose himself before Hidan turned the corner.

"PEIN!" he yelled, not even bothering to be respectful- as usual. He glared daggers at Kakuzu, daring him to try and punish him before turning back to the orange-haired man. "That stupid jinchuriki bitch…" he trailed off, unable to find words that wouldn't make it seem like she had beat him up.

"Wiped the floor with your ass?" suggested Deidara. He received a glare filled with enough venom to kill small animals.

Pein sighed. "I am aware of this," he said tiredly. Kakuzu snorted.

Hidan visibly faltered. "Uh… you are?" he said this quietly, but gained momentum as he got fired up again. "Then what're you gonna fucking do about it?"

"What do you want me to do about it? You screwed up her kitchen. You expect her to wipe your ass for you? Oh, and Kakuzu, has he cleaned it up yet?" Pein said, feigning boredom, though he was still on an adrenaline rush from his escape. _What the hell am I so worked up about?_ He thought. _What could she do to me?_ He paused, and answered his own question. _She would have gone Eleven tails on my sorry ass._ His thought were interrupted by the men in front of him; Deidara was laughing his ass off, and Kakuzu was chuckling. Hidan was just staring at Pein, surprised at his choice of words.

"I'll make him clean it up, Leader-sama," said Zetsu, who had just materialized out of the floor. Deidara looked creeped out and stared cautiously at the plan-man. Hidan's face drained of color at the appearance of the cannibal. They all cleared off pretty quickly, and Zetsu faded back into the walls.

Pein turned around and sighed, the migraine already beginning to return. He looked back up to the top of the staircase, and was surprised to see Fallyn standing at the top and staring at him.

"Thanks," she said quietly.

"For what? Not getting involved with Hidan's ordeals?" he said in an annoyed tone.

"No. Thanks for saving my life," a sheepish smile spread across her face, and she hurried back down the hall to her room. Pein stared after her, thoroughly confused. He walked back down the hall in a daze.

* * *

><p>The day passed uneventfully. Nothing else was broken and the kitchen was cleaned (much to Hidan's dismay), but it took a while to figure out the toaster. It was still sparking even though it was painstakingly put back together.<p>

The next day wasn't so peaceful, though. Pein called for a meeting at seven in the morning. That didn't bode well for most of the members. Pein had to get Zetsu to go wake up Fallyn because he needed the Eleven tails in particular for the meeting, and Zetsu was the one who could get away the fastest if he succeeded (Zetsu, of course, had already found out about the tower room and had sworn to keep it a secret).

Not long after the plant-man disappeared came the telltale shriek of one particular female in a particular room in a particular tower, and not soon after Zetsu arrived back into the room, breathless, with gouge marks from what looked like nails on his Venus flytrap appendages. They could all hear Fallyn stomping down the stairs, and felt her murderous glare before they even turned to face her, in all her pajamafied glory. If it weren't for the waves of killing intent rolling off of her being, Hidan would have had a nosebleed at the short pajama shorts with knee-high socks and the thin spaghetti-strap undershirt that adorned her body and personified her "womanly curves". That wasn't the case, though, but the clothing did show off a tattoo of the kanji "pain" written in thick calligraphy on her shoulder.

"Nice tattoo," said Pein indifferently, trying to suppress the laughter at her unusual appearance. She blew a tuft of frizzy black hair out of her face, and glared daggers at him.

She ignored the offhand comment. "Next time," she said calmly, but you could hear the boiling river of anger behind her words, "Don't send your freaking PLANT PET to wake me up, 'kay?"

"Wow, someone's bitchy in the morning, huh?" said Hidan, recovering from the almost-nosebleed.

"'Plant** pet?'" **repeated Zetsu, more than a little annoyed. He glared at Deidara and Kisame, who were sniggering in a corner.

"ANYWAY," interrupted Pein, "Its nice to see you, too, Eleven Tails. Please, have a seat," he gestured at the chair at the head of the table across from him. She huffed again, and plopped herself ungracefully in the chair, sending venomous stares at all the members staring at her.

"Its Ryuubi. Call me the Ryuubi. 'Eleven tails' gets annoying after a while," she said sullenly.

"Okay, Ryuubi. I have gathered all the members for a meeting. I need you to participate, and be truthful. Easy enough for you?" the last part of the sentence sounded vaguely insulting, but the raging girl showed no sign of apprehending the tone.

"Participate in what?"

"Questions. I need you to answer questions truthfully. Or you'll have to pay a visit to the Nightmare Realm," he finished with a glance at Itachi, who was staring intently at the girl. She glared in his direction, then turned her attention back to Pein.

"Fine, fine, but it depends on your question."

He sighed. "Fair enough," he paused a moment to collect his thoughts for this willing interrogation. "So, could you clarify what you meant by 'inextractable'?"

The Eleven tails snorted. "It means exactly what it says. I cannot be extracted from this host," she paused, thoughtful, before continuing with more momentum, "Well, I can be extracted, but I cannot do anything in that form. I need a host in order to communicate and carry out actions. Do you understand what I mean?" All the members were murmuring among themselves except Itachi, whose gaze hadn't left the girl since she started speaking.

Pein was utterly speechless. It took him a couple moments to regain his bearings and continue. "So… uh… Konan, may I speak to you for a moment?" The blue-haired female nodded and walked into the hallway with Pein in tow. The Ryuubi continued to stare contentedly after them, a smug grin planted on her face. _Checkmate,_ it thought, and Fallyn's consciousness could only ask what it meant. _It means I win, _it said, _My plan worked. Or, it will, soon. Soon, you will be a member of this organization, and my purpose can be fulfilled._ Fallyn was left confused.

In the hallway, Pein turned to his childhood friend. "What can we do now?" he questioned, exasperated.

Konan looked thoughtful, then said, "Well, the only thing we can do in this situation is… wait, what are you asking me for? You already know the answer."

Pein got a pained (**haha… puns**) expression on his face. He _did_ already know the answer- he just didn't want to have to admit it.

"We already have an extra cloak, and remember Deidara got Orochimaru's ring back on that one mission? She's all set. You just have to admit it," Konan went on, oblivious to her friend's exasperation.

Pein sighed in defeat. "Fine," he said gloomily, "fine. Whatever. We need another member anyway, right? Perfect. We just have to train her, and she can be of great use. Okay." He sounded more like he was convincing himself. The pair walked back into the room.

"Alright," said Pein tiredly, "New plan. Akatsuki, meet your new member."


	4. Questions

**Author's Notes:**

**Ah! Gomenasai Gomenasai Gomenasai! I haven's updated in For-EVA! I have been diagnosed with a sickness affecting teenagers everywhere, and its called LAZINESS! Its when you lose all drive to do anything that involves work, even if it is something you adore! That, and I had a ridiculous amount of homework and exams and other crap. And so with medication (new manga), I have recovered partially and am writing chapter four for you, dear readers. But alas, I have only got two reviewers! Thank you KITTY LOVES MATT and Secretly Evil for being the ONLY ONES who reviewed. TT^TT I do have quite a few people who have added me to their alert and favorites list, but REVIEW! EVEN FLAMES ARE ACCEPTED!**

**Oh, and I went back and actually **_**edited**_** the previous chapters. Added some stuff, too. Gonna have to do that more often… I found a bunch of mistakes…**

**Disclaimer: Godammit Masashi Kishimoto, I hope your characters turn on you and Hidan cuts your head off for owning them!**

* * *

><p>"What?" they all said in shocked unison.<p>

"What?" said Fallyn, who had been a little late in her response.

Pein rolled his eyes. "You heard me."

"But _Pein,_" whined Hidan, "Why does it have to be _her?_"

"Shut up, Hidan, I'm not too keen on it either. But if we leave her, do you want to fight her when she's taken by the Leaf?"

"Gee, thanks, I feel so welcome," Fallyn said sarcastically. Pein smirked slightly.

"Alright, now everyone except for Konan, Itachi, and Tobi, leave," he ordered. Everyone, including Fallyn, stood. "And you, too," sighed Pein.

"Dammit," groaned Fallyn, "Almost got away…" She sat down again, slightly sulkily.

"Now, for a more private interrogation," said Pein, slightly eager to have his questions answered.

"Oh no, wait just one minute. You're not the only one with freaking questions, oh-so-powerful leader," snapped the Ryuubi. "I have some questions, too. And I am not answering any of yours until you answer any of mine."

Pein sighed exasperatedly. "You stu-"

He was suddenly interrupted by the presence of a familiar noisy Akatsuki member, who had inserted himself in between him and the girl and was now jumping up and down excitedly. "Tobi knows! Tobi knows! Let's play a game! Girl-chan asks one question, Pein-sama answers, Pein-sama asks one question, Girl-chan answers!"

"Thank you for the idea, Tobi. We'll d what you said. Now _get out of the way_," said Pein maliciously. The orange man immediately sat down. Itachi watched them all with a bored expression, and Konan sighed and sat down, wishing that the interrogation would already come to an end.

"Okay, then. My first question- what exactly is your purpose, if you can't be turned into Ten Tails, like the other biju?"

The question caught the Ryuubi off guard. "H-Huh?"

Pein looked at her oddly. "You heard me…"

"Oh, yes," she said quickly, regaining her composure, "I can't tell you." She finished with a wry smile.

Pein's expression darkened and a disturbing, dangerous smile spread across his face. "That's against the rules, Ryuubi; you _have_ to answer my question, right, _Tobi_?" he sent a dark glare over to the masked man, whose expression had also darkened. The Ryuubi saw the glint of the Eternal Mangekyo from the one eyehole.

She sniffed indignantly. "It's not like I don't _want_ to tell you, I don't, but it isn't possible for me to tell you."

"_Why not_?" hissed Madara/Tobi.

"Well, um…. It's because… well…. I don't really know why I was created."

The Ryuubi's eyes narrowed back into their normal size, and Fallyn's voice said, "Liar. You told me that once we joined the Akatsuki that your purpose could be fulfilled."

The pupils dilated again, and the Ryuubi hissed, "I don't know _what _my purpose is, girl. You should stay quiet every once in a while. I just know that I will be able to fulfill my purpose once we join the Akatsuki."

Silence. Or really, silence for a moment, because everyone could hear snickers coming from the room over.

Pein's expression darkened. "_Get. Out. Here. Now."_ He said, his voice dangerously low.

Slowly and guiltily members filed through the doorway, heads bowed, but not for respect, just to hide their smirks and grins. Pein glared daggers, or more like insanely frightening poison-dipped swords, at each member in turn. That only made some (Hidan) snicker even more, which earned him a vicious kick to the hideously yellow-purple bruise on the side of his head.

"Why were you disobeying my orders?" he growled.

After recovering from his injury, Hidan whined, "We want to know what's going on…"

Everyone who was previously in the room rolled their eyes. Pein sighed, "Hhh…you'll listen even if I have to throw you out the window, won't you?" Hidan, Deidara, and Kisame nodded vigorously, and the more solemn members, Kakuzu and Zetsu, nodded slowly. Pein rolled his eyes again, and gestured to the open seats, with a glance at Madara/Tobi. His demeanor gave up no hints as to what he was thinking, so Pein ignored whatever he would have to say in the future.

"My turn now," said the Eleven Tails in an amused voice. The room quieted, waiting to hear what she had to ask.

"How did you figure out that I was the Eleven Tails?" she said curiously.

Itachi answered the question for Pein. "The mark on your face. That, and the eyes just confirmed it."

Several of the members turned to face Fallyn, searching her scar. She lowered her head even more, and her dark hair covered the cheek with the mark.

"You're wrong," she mumbled from behind her curtain of dark hair, "Nothing is _sealed_ by that mark."

Pein snorted. "Of course it was," he said, annoyed.

She looked up at him, gray-gold eyes glinting from behind her bangs. "You have no idea where I got that. You're wrong."

The Akatsuki looked at her oddly. Pein cleared his throat. "I believe it is my turn now. If you believe that I am wrong, then where _did_ you get that mark?"

The girl visibly twitched, and grimaced under her mask of hair. She sighed heavily, and lifted her head, hair parting slightly so everyone could see the obvious discomfort painted on her face.

I'd rather not talk about it," she said, straining to keep a straight face. Memories swirled in her mind, and she felt dizzy.

From the Akatsuki's point of view, the members who were more susceptible to chakra felt the levels coming from the girl spike drastically. Thick black chakra began leaking out of her, and her pupils narrowed and became slits. Black claws formed around her hands and feet, and horns grew from the chakra around her head. Kisame was on her in an instant, shoving the Samehada into the small of her back. The chakra was sucked into the large sword, excruciatingly slowly, the minutes feeling like years.

When all of the chakra finally entered the sword, Kisame sat back, exhausted. His sword was wracked by violent spasms, having taken in too much powerful energy. Fallyn slumped on the floor, a dazed, sad look plastered on her face.

Everyone else looked on the scene with incredulousness. "What the fuck was that all about?" muttered Hidan, confused and surprised.

Pein coughed, catching everyone's attention. "Get her back in her chair, someone get a blanket, find tea," he ordered. The Akatsuki complied.

Sitting in her high-backed chair wrapped in a warm fleece blanket and sipping chamomile tea, Fallyn nodded graciously at the members who had helped her. Slowly they filed out of the room, having lost interest in the interrogation.

"Sorry about that," she said quietly, "I don't like to think about that. Pein, you can ask another question since I couldn't answer the first."

Pein twitched at being addressed without the slightest hint of formality, but he shook his head and shoved the irritated feeling in away. "No, it's your turn."

She nodded submissively, too tired to argue. She glanced around the room, searching her brain for any important questions she had. "Um…When do you plan on leaving?"

He snorted. "You mean 'we'? Soon enough."

She grimaced, but nodded. "Oh, fun…" she muttered. Everyone ignored her.

"My turn. How did you know about the other biju, the Ten Tails, and everything else? And what else do you know?"

Smiling faintly, she said, "That's two questions, but I'll answer both anyway. Aside from there being a tailed beast from your dimension inside of me, there's a kind of…entertainment source that tells almost your whole story. It's a little overwhelming to comprehend, so I'll leave it at that. I know a lot, more than anyone should really know." She finished with a glance in the direction of Tobi, who lowered his head suspiciously. She nodded, knowing that he would find out either way and didn't want to be tortured for the intel. His eyes glinted.

"My turn, were you serious about me joining the Akatsuki?" said Fallyn, hoping he had been, but knowing for sure that he wasn't.

Pein looked over at her incredulously. "Do I even have to answer that?"

She hung her head. "No," she mumbled.

"Um…I think that's all the questions I can think of at the moment. Dismissed," he said calmly. She immediately stood and walked down the hallway to her room to get dressed.

* * *

><p>It was eleven in the morning before anyone saw Fallyn. She came down dressed in a My Chemical Romance band T-shirt and a studded belt with dark jeans, iPod headphones over her ears. Her hair had been brushed and swept back in a low ponytail, and her face had been washed. She looked a lot better than she had two and a half hours ago.<p>

She slid on low-cut socks down the entryway, and into the spacious living room. Itachi sat there reading, but his red eyes followed her as she flew from one end of the room to another in five seconds flat on the dark wood floors. His eyes flickered, very faintly, with amusement, before returning to his novel.

She traveled through the hallways, giggling loudly, enjoying her music, when she smacked right into Hidan's chest. Her giggling immediately stopped, and one of her headphones slid down her ear. She stared up at him with wide eyes.

Hidan stared back at her with equally wide eyes. Neither had seen the other coming, only noticing each other once they made contact.

Fallyn blushed crimson, and she took a slippery step back, mumbling apologies. Inside her mind was reeling, hoping with all she had that he had forgotten about the broom incident. He hadn't, of course, and had a splitting headache as a constant reminder of her attack.

With inhuman speed he grabbed her arm, and used her slippery socks against her, twisting her easily to the floor. She gaped up at him, eyes wide with fear and surprise, and he grinned maliciously down at her, pinning her arms high above her head, knees pressing painfully into the tops of her thighs. She let out a frightened gasp, and stared deep into his sadistic magenta eyes. The look she was giving him unnerved Hidan, and to show that she was really at his mercy, he pulled a kunai from inside of his cloak. Her eyes hardened at the sight of the knife, and Hidan was displeased to see that she didn't flinch when he traced the curve of her jaw with the tip of the blade.

His smile faded, replaced by a look of contempt. "You know what? You look so asymmetrical with that scar only on one side of your face. Why don't we even it out?" He pressed his knees deeper into the nerve on her thigh, and she let out a small gasp of pain. His grin returned at her discomfort. But he was distracted, and didn't see her stomach tense as she bucked and tossed him off of her. He was thrown lightly to the side, and she twisted out of the way of his flying foot. They both straightened themselves onto their knees, kneeling on opposite sides of the hallway.

Hidan moved first, and launched himself across the hall to the girl, kunai ready. She twisted away, and just avoided a stick of sharp metal in her face. Though the dodged the worst of it, the blade nicked her on the cheek opposite the one with the scar, and she felt hot blood form on the wound.

But just as Hidan was about to lick the blade, a foot came out of nowhere and slammed into Hidan's face, sending him flying down the hall. Fallyn, surprised, looked up to see a very irritated Pein standing before her, glaring down the hall at Hidan.

"I'll have none of that."

* * *

><p><strong>Finally finished! I don't really know where i was going with that last scene, but behold, the first pairng moment! Mwahahaha! R&amp;R pwett pweez, i send you virtual hugs it ya do! ;3<strong>


	5. Socks

**Author's Note:**

**HOLY CRAP! I LOVE YOU GUYS SOOOOOOO MUCH! YOU GUYS ARE FFREAKING AMAZING! Thank you SO MUCH for reviewing so quickly, and so nicely. I WUV YOU! My reviews went from 4 to 10 in one day. And now, I respond to the reviewers:**

**Megaanimegirl (New reviewer): Thank you so much! I appreciate you're review! :3**

**Yapook (New Reviewer): Thank you, too! I'm glad it didn't come out cheesy or anything, and I appreciate your input. It's reviews like that that are really helpful. XD**

**Cheyy (New Reviewer): Okaaaaaaay! Thanks for making me feel that my story is appreciated! :)**

**Secretly Evil (Veteran Reviewer): You know what? You are my bestest virtual buddy evah. Yes, you can have a virtual Mr. Zetsu as your plant pet! O_|**_^**!**

**And thank you very much for the grammar check….. wuv you. And I simply adore your Akatsuki face-things!**

**I love you all to freaking bits! You motivated me to immediately write another chapter! So here I am cranking out chapter 5! Mwah!**

**Disclaimer: Do not own any of the Akatsuki, Naruto, names, jutsus, etc. I own Fallyn, the Eleven Tails, and Fallyn's house.**

* * *

><p>Fallyn looked up at Pein with wide, surprised eyes. After a few moments of shock, she started to laugh quietly. He turned to her, confused. Hidan took that as his chance to scurry away before the Akatsuki leader could deliver more "Righteous Judgment".<p>

Fallyn's laughter steadily grew in volume and mirth, until she was laughing so hard tears were escaping her eyes and she was on the floor with a cramp in her side. Pein continued to stare down at her, face blank with confusion.

_How was that funny?_ he thought to himself, replaying the scene in his head to check if anything had been even remotely humorous.

Fallyn's laughing fit eventually subsided, and she wiped her face with her sleeve. Grinning up at Pein, she said with traces of laughter still in her voice, "Thank you Pein-sama. That was awesome!" She beamed up at him, and pulled herself up. Then she did something no other person in the world would dare to do.

She patted his head.

It was not as if she was belittling him, really, because she was shorter and had to slightly reach in order to reach the top of his head, but still.

And that surprised Pein to no measure. Used to being treated with respect and fear, physical contact that did not include fighting was not new to him, but no one had really touched him in an endearing way since he was Jiraiya's student.

Fallyn did not realize what she had done, and continued sliding down the hallways, giggling softly.

Pein shook his head and brushed off the action, filing it away into his brain, and walked back to his room to contemplate his punishment for Hidan.

* * *

><p>When Fallyn finally reached her destination, it was raining. Again. She had hoped that the morning's promise of brief sunshine had not been false, but weather seemed to enjoy proving people wrong.<p>

She unbolted the back door and slipped outside in her rain boots. Scurrying through the rain, she made her way over to the mailbox, where for day's worth of mail had been shoved in unevenly. With difficulty, she managed to pull it all out, but some ads and junk mail fell into a puddle of mud at her feet. Cursing softly, she gathered them up when one particular letter caught her eye; one with her school board's insignia emblazoned on the top. She tucked it into her pocket and ran back inside.

Dripping wet and cold, she walked quickly to the den where a fire was already blazing. Itachi had moved to a warmer part of the house, and was reading in one of the large armchairs facing the hearth. Kakuzu sat at the large oak desk where she usually did her homework, counting his money. Both looked up when she walked, still dripping, into the room.

"Hello there," said Fallyn nervously, growing tiny under the intense gazes of both men. She walked silently over to the rug in front of the fire, head down, and started sorting her mail.

Kakuzu quickly lost interest in the girl and returned to counting his money. The only noises in the room were the _clink_ of coins, the crackle of the fire, and the shuffle of letters. Itachi remained motionless, watching the girl as she nervously went through the abundance of mail.

It took a while, but Fallyn eventually had three neat stacks of envelopes in front of her. The majority of the mail had been junk, and that stack stood the tallest. She threw it into the fire, and watched the flames eat up and add for toothpaste.

The second stack had been letters from her distant family members. After brutally ripping them open and scanning the contents (some included checks, bills, business cards for therapists) she also tossed them into the hungry fire, not bothering to watch as they too were devoured.

The third and smallest stack was actually readable and important mail. It consisted of only the letter from the school board. She sighed heavily, and without further hesitation tore open the envelope quite ungracefully. The sound of ripping paper was made all the more unpleasant in the dead silence.

Fallyn scanned over the letter, and then actually read it.

_Dear Ms. Rai,_

_We are sorry to say that with this being your fourth suspension for violence, we will have to expel you from the student body. _

_This behavior has been unacceptable, even though we have dismissed past slip-ups on account of your family's dilemma, but this has happened too many times. You have become a threat to the student body, and so you must leave._

_From,_

_Cindy Gold_

_School Board Director_

She choked when she read the "family's dilemma" part. Kakuzu looked up from his counting and Itachi's eyes, having never left her since she came in, flickered with both confusion and amusement.

"What's wrong now?" asked Kakuzu gruffly, irritated at having his counting session interrupted yet again. He wrote his number down onto a piece of paper and turned his full attention to her.

"Damn school. Damn it all. I _hate_ those people. What right do they think they have to refer to _that_? Fuck them all. I hope they burn in hell. All of them. Every one of them." She threw that letter into the fire to burn with the rest of it and stomped angrily out of the room, leaving a very confused Kakuzu and a very amused Itachi.

* * *

><p>She stomped down the hallway, her eyes burning with angry tears. How <em>dare <em>they? How dare they force her out of the school district for punching a girl who purposely provoked something? But, it did clear some complications up… like how to explain her suddenly leaving the school when she was taken away.

In her blind rage she ran into someone for the second time- Hidan. Again. He turned, already having a hunch of who had ran into him. They stared at each other for a few moments, and Fallyn cursed fate for all the shit it was putting her through.

"Oh, excuse me, Hidan" she said in a sickeningly sweet tone, trying to hide her irritation. She tried to step around him, but he moved with her, blocking her path yet again. Sighing heavily, she tried to step the other way, and again, he moved with her.

"Do you have a problem?" she asked, a tone of anger creeping into her voice. She had no time for him.

He cleared his throat, and looked at her with a pained expression. "I…I'm sorry. For earlier."

She stared at him with a look of utter surprise. She had expected him to try the morning's stunt yet again, but _apologizing_?

Once her immediate shock had cleared, she managed to say, "What did Pein say to make you do this?"

He looked sharply up at her, and said quickly, "Nothing."

Her eyes narrowed slightly. "What did he say, Hidan?"

Looking at the floor with an ashamed look crossed his face and mumbled "He threatened to castrate me with a spoon."

It took a second to register, but once it did she laughed. Shoving Hidan gently aside, she continued down the hall laughing. An angry flush heated his face, but he did not chase after her, for only one reason.

Pein emerged from the shadows of the hall and said with an amused and triumphant glint in his eye, "Good job Hidan, but let that be a standing threat. I will get Kakuzu to carry out the threat of you try to harm a fellow _Akatsuki member_ again." And he disappeared back into the gloom, leaving a very pale Jashinist behind to fully process his words.

* * *

><p>Fallyn was playing with a pocket watch and listening to her iPod when Pein appeared before her hanging cloth chair.<p>

And I mean _appeared_.

Startled, she moved to quickly for her chair and ended up on the floor, arms uncomfortably bent under her, pocket watch digging into her ribs. Cursing softly, she rolled over until she was safe under her desk, and sat there glaring at Pein, oddly-colored eyes shining from the shadow of her desk. He snickered and took her place in the chair, legs crossed, looking as if he owned the room.

"Why hello there, Ryuubi," he said calmly. His response was a hiss, which only made him chuckle again.

The grey gold eyes' pupils narrowed. "I'm not the Eleven Tails right now, idiot," she said.

A flicker of surprise passed through his purple-gray eyes, but it was gone in an instant. But not fast enough to escape Fallyn's hawk-like gaze.

"Yes, it's me Pein," she said again, slightly exasperated, "What are you doing in my room?"

Quickly regaining his composure, he didn't seem to miss a beat. "It's time to go. Everyone's ready except for you."

There was a pause, and tension seemed to physically fill the air. Then, suddenly, Fallyn erupted out from under the desk and started racing frantically around the room ranting.

"What do you mean we're leaving _now_? You need to _notify_ me about these things! I need to get ready… and pack… and… and… WHY?" She ran around the room, grabbing things and putting them onto her bed. She grabbed her messenger bag and dumped her school stuff out into the trash can next to her desk. She shoved her sketchbooks, iPod, charger, laptop, camera, books, and her small clocks into her bag, as well as pencils and erasers. Pein watched the whole thing, very amused, and noting the fact that she didn't bother to pack other things like clothes and such.

Pein was woken from his musings when Fallyn tipped him out of the woven hanging chair. He, too, fell in a very unflattering and un-leader like lump on the floor.

Fallyn snickered and said, "That wasn't very godly, was it, Pein-_sama_?" She walked to the staircase and turned to take one last, long look at her beloved bedroom. Sighing heavily, she walked gracefully and sullenly down the spiral stairs, leaving behind her room and a still very disgruntled Pein.

Everyone was outside in a clearing, each person standing in a line on a scroll. Fallyn noticed, as she walked to join them, that they were each standing on a symbol that was the same as the one on their rings. There were two open spaces, one at the front of the line for Pein (who had still not emerged) and one at the back with the kanji for "void" on it, which she presumed to be hers. She walked past everyone, and took her place at the end of the line not proudly, but like a person condemned to death row.

It wasn't very soon after that Pein too emerged from the house, as flushed as an animated dead body could get. His cloak was rumpled, and his face had a few creases from the awkward position on the carpet. He sent a glare over to Fallyn at the end of the row, and took a few dignified steps over to his rightful place at the top of the scroll, and with a few quick hand seals, they were gone in a puff of melodramatic black smoke.

* * *

><p><strong>Ending notes:<strong>

**Gah! Its finally over! And guys, I wont be writing exactly one week because I have to study for this giant geography final and do this stupid project.**


	6. Items of Restraint

**Author's Notes:**

**I have lost my faith in you reviewers peoples. You guys suuuuuuck… I had to BATTLE with my parents to let me update that last stupid chapter before I started my projects, and I checked EVERY DAY for a new review. I am sooo disappointed.**

**But, there was ONE NEW REVIEWER: Echo Uchiha. Thanks you. But seriously…. One-worded reviews on EVERY CHAPTER? GOT ANY ****HELPFUL**** or ****SUBSTANTIAL**** feedback?**

**Meh… now I'm grumpy... And this was supposed to be a funny chapter… actually, that was a lie. A complete lie.**

**Disclaimer. I WANT, BUT I CAN'T HAVE. Stupid Masashi Kishimoto…**

* * *

><p>Fallyn had not been completely prepared for Pein's sudden departure. Nor was she prepared for the dizzying… way of transportation. She didn't know what to call it, but she didn't like it. All she could register was darkness, thick smoke, and the feeling of moving lightning-fast without her own body really moving.<p>

Then suddenly, she felt like she was falling. It took a while, but finally she landed with a thud on a cold floor. She was standing in a room, but she could not see it yet because of the puff of black smoke that had erupted once she had arrived. Coughing uncontrollably, she fell to her knees, one arm holding her stomach and the other covering her mouth.

When the smoke cleared, Fallyn continued to cough. She looked around, but didn't register the room. All she saw was a bathroom, with a convenient bucket on the floor. A rising feeling started to creep up her esophagus, and she launched herself at the bucket.

Let me tell you one thing: Motion sickness and smoke don't go very well together.

She puked into the pail, but it wasn't much considering that she hadn't eaten anything. When she was finished, she wiped the foul-smelling… stuff… on her face on a towel that was hanging from a pole. After washing out her mouth, she drowsily turned to face the room.

It was… I hesitate to say crude… simple. A twin bed was in the corner, covered by thin white sheets and a blanket, with a firm pillow. There was a small wooden desk, with many drawers to store supplies in. A small wardrobe stood in the corner. The floor was stone, as were the walls. It was cold. There were no windows, and the only potential light source was a few candles scattered around the room.

The air was stale and earthen, so she figured she was in a cave or something. She dropped her bag on the bed, and went through the thin plywood door to try and find someone.

Her first problem- she recognized the hall instantly. Curving patterns were carved into the walls, and sconces were hammered into the patterns every few steps. The light made the hallway seem sinister, giving the passage enough light to see but not enough to be comfortable with your surroundings. Snake skins occasionally littered the floor.

Orochimaru's lair.

Fallyn abruptly turned back into the room and gathered her bag. She prepared herself to leave the room again- just the thought of knowing where she was was stressful. She crept out of the room, her Converse making light, light tapping noises on the stone floor. She had no idea where she was going, but she had to go _somewhere_ or she thought she might explode. Which could be helpful, since that might make a way out. Despite the fact that she would be the explosive.

"Oh God, I wish Deidara was here… the one time he might be useful to me and he's _gone_… or really, _I'm _gone," she mumbled quietly to herself. Even though she barely made a noise, it echoed softly down the passage. She winced, and started to move faster.

She had only been walking ten minutes when she heard the distinct sound of something scratching on the floor. Actually, it wasn't _scratching, _that's not accurate. It was like someone was running their fingernails up and down a piece of paper.

Snakes.

Long black shapes were slithering in the corners of the passageway, where the floor and wall met. Their tongues were constantly flickering in and out, the saliva coating them shining in the torchlight. Glistening amber eyes stared unblinkingly at her, and the next thing she knew there was a roiling circle of snakes going around her feet and between her legs, sending shudders up her body at their stony cold skin. They were hissing manically, and it sounded almost like English- "Intruder". One winded up her leg, and bit her thigh, right on the artery. Almost instantaneously, her vision fogged over and the passage went black.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, at the Akatsuki lair…<p>

"Shit…_cough cough_… Leader-sama, why the hell is there smoke _every time_?" said Hidan, hacking thick black smoke out of his lungs.

Pein stood unfazed, the bad air not affecting his reanimated lungs. "It's not my fault that there's smoke, that's just what happens when you perform the jutsu," he replied calmly.

All other members were also having coughing fits, and Pein waited patiently for them to stop, his ringed gaze sweeping the room. Nine members. Perfect- Shit.

Fallyn.

* * *

><p>Fallyn awoke to a bright white synthetic light. It burned her sensitive eyes, and drowned the room in an artificially dull glow.<p>

She hissed, and tried turning to her side to block the light, only to find that her ankles, thighs, wrists, biceps, and neck were bolted with leather straps to a cold steel table.

"Oh damn it all to freaking hell…" she said, "Why the hell does all this shit have to happen to _me_, huh? If there's a fucking God up there, I don't know _what_ the hell I did do deserve this shit, but I swear to whatever god is up there, I will _kill_ you."

Unbeknown to the thoroughly pissed off girl, a pair of red eyes were watching her every move, analyzing every reaction, scanning for weaknesses. An annoying smirk had been plastered onto her face the moment she had started speaking.

This was going to be fun.

* * *

><p>"Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit," muttered Pein as he ran all over the base, searching every room for the missing girl. All the other members were doing the same, furiously scanning through every empty cavern, down every stone passage.<p>

It took two hours to search the whole base. Slowly members started to filter into a high-ceilinged room, reporting the results of their futile search to an extremely irritated Pein. Eventually every member was in the room except Itachi. Normally no one would have cared, but usually for searches he was the first back. Pein allowed himself just a little bit of hope, but not enough to be extremely disappointed.

When Itachi finally entered the room, Pein was on his nerve's end. Thoughts like _Shit, Konoha got her, Konoha got her, we are sooo screwed, _and _Damn her for being so easily captured._ He suspected every single person in the shinobi world except for who it really was, which was unfortunate.

Anyways, Itachi entered the room with a snake skin. He held them up with a passive expression, and the color drained from several members' faces. Pein slightly staggered over, and snatched the snake skin away from Itachi.

On the skin were two words: _I win._

"Shit."

* * *

><p>Fallyn was pissed. She had been awake for nearly two hours, lying on a relentlessly firm and cold steel table, strapped down, hungry, thirsty, tired, scared, had to use the lavatory, and she was sure she had just started her period. Not to mention that she was in the lair of a snake-like pedophile, an angsty teenage bastard, a slutty red-haired bitch, two freaking amazing people (Juugo and Suigetsu), and a creepy rapist.<p>

Fuck the world.

Said angsty teenage bastard had been watching her the whole time, chuckling silently to himself at her discomfort. She was still unaware, but she was waiting for _someone_ to show up, so that she wouldn't be so bored and might, _might_, be able to get off that accursed table.

The steel door in the corner of the dark room swung open, squeaking quietly, and a cold breeze swept into the room. Two amber eyes glinted in the darkness, shining like the owner was smiling. Which he was.

Candles were lit, and Sasuke was finally revealed, sitting in the corner. Fallyn hissed once she saw him, and gave a futile attempt trying to scoot a couple of inches away. Sasuke glared at her with his red eyes, but Orochimaru only chuckled and started circling the steel table like a predator, golden snake eyes glinting hungrily. Sasuke stood and watched him from a corner, awaiting an order or something. He was the least of Fallyn's worries.

Orochimaru started to trace the X scar on her cheek, and she instinctively flinched and tried to pull her head away. The strap around her neck kept her in place, and he chuckled again.

Then she felt a light sucking feeling, and turned her head to see Orochimaru extracting chakra from the mark. Her eyes widened and she paled.

"No, no… you can't do that… It's gonna come out, you snake-brained idiot," she said hurriedly, desperately trying to move her head out of the reach of his chakra leeching fingers.

"That's the point, Eleven Tails Jinchuriki," he said in a smooth velvety voice, and simply moved his arm over her head and continued. She thought his voice suited him. Sounded like a child molester snake's voice. It sent shivers up her arms.

After a few moments Fallyn started to feel her subconscious gradually start to slip away, something it hadn't done since she had arrived. It was déjà vu of what had happened that day in school; her mind seemed to slip out of her body, and she watched with a victorious smirk on her face as the Ryuubi took over her body. Slowly, the black chakra cloud started to leak from what seemed like her pores, and sizzling could be heard; her hot skin was singeing the leather straps. Claws and horns formed, as well as the appearance of the first tail. With one powerful wrench, the straps had been broken like tissue paper.

Orochimaru looked at the transformation appraisingly, memorizing the order, the physical makeup, the powerful chakra waves choking the oxygen out of the air. Sasuke was also watching, his Sharingan switched on to take in every detail.

The Eleven Tails whipped its head around, glaring at Orochimaru with slitted golden-gray eyes. Pure rage and a hint of arrogance was held in that glare, and it even made Orochimaru shrink just a little bit. The muscles in the back of its legs twitched and tensed; Sasuke saw the attack coming before Orochimaru did, and right as the Ryuubi jumped, he launched himself in front of his teacher, Kusanagi in hand. He held it in front of him in a defensive position, meaning to fake the beast out of its attack. But it never stopped or changed direction; it just grabbed Sasuke's sword with its bare hands and ripped it in half. The steaming metal clanged to the floor.

It hit Sasuke with the back of its hand, sending him flying into the wall. By that time Orochimaru had gone up in a poof of white smoke and disappeared. The Eleven Tails hissed, and swept its gaze across the room, eyes falling on the unconscious Sasuke, his head stuck in the stone wall. It walked over, about to snap his neck.

But fuck fate, not a moment later Suigetsu, Juugo, and Karin appeared in the smashed doorway, kunai and shuriken in hand, mouths hanging open when they saw what was in the room.

The Eleven Tails did not hesitate and used their momentary shock to its advantage. It launched itself at them, and the three instinctively jumped out of the way and threw their weapons. They melted before they could touch it. By then the second tail had already formed, and the third one was growing. It gathered a ball of concentrated chakra, and instead of blasting it at the three ninja before it the ball was launched through the ceiling, blasting a huge crater in the grassy landscape above the labyrinth. It jumped out, and an incredibly sight took place- black draconic _wings_ unfolded. The third tail had emerged, and so had the fourth, the fifth starting to sprout.

The blast knocked rubble everywhere, including on top of a particular unconscious Uchiha, whose head was still lodged in a wall. The other three ninja had fled. The Ryuubi swooped back down, and clawed through the rubble, and produced Sasuke's mangled and broken body, head still preserved in the wall. It wrenched it out, and with one quick motion, snapped the head off the body. And with that, it flew off.

* * *

><p>"Oh, shit… Shit shit shit… Oh, holy <em>shit <em>no," stressed Pein, hands vigorously rubbing his face. The other members watched this tantrum, slightly worried. Seeing the leader lose his cool was not a very reassuring thing to see.

"Um… Pein? Wh-" started Konan, but he quickly cut her off.

"Everyone move out. Split into your cells and search one of Orochimaru's bases each. _Now_," he said with pure power and force. They exited quickly.

He turned to Konan. "We are going, too. Come," he said, and they ran.

* * *

><p>It took a while for all of the Ryuubi's chakra to fade and for Fallyn to be able to reenter her body, and it happened right in the middle of the forest near Konoha. She fell to the undergrowth-strangled floor with a loud thud and the start of a few bruises, thoroughly exhausted from expending that much chakra. She fell asleep as soon as she hit the floor.<p>

It took three days to thoroughly search every base. It was Itachi and Kisame, though, who found the correct base, albeit a few days too late. They inspected the rubble, and found Sasuke's headless body. Itachi showed no emotion, as usual, but Kisame knew he was thinking about _something_, since he was more resigned than usual.

Itachi noted the severed head and could only guess what she had in store for that.

Kisame also sensed traces of a tremendous amount of discharge chakra, but it was already too obvious what had happened that that fact was just an alibi. The rest of the base had faint traces of chakra, but it was old. It was empty.

They returned to their own base.

* * *

><p>When Fallyn awoke, she was no longer on the mossy floor of the forest. She was in a blindingly white room, strapped, to her great displeasure, to an uncomfortable steel chair. Steel had become her least favorite material in the world. As did rope. And leather. And other things that could tie people up or strap them down. She squinted into the fluorescent light, her eyes slowly adjusting.<p>

"Oh goodie, you're awake," said a high-pitched female voice, and Fallyn turned her head to meet the blue-eyed grin of a blonde-haired nurse with stunningly white teeth. They looked huge, too big for her small mouth. They freaked Fallyn out.

"No shit, Sherlock," she grumbled, the woman's voice annoying the normal politeness out of her usual behavior. She squirmed around in the chair, and glared at the surprised face of the nurse. "Now, if I may ask, why in _hell_am I strapped to this _godforsaken_ chair, woman?"

The nurse's eyes narrowed and she leaned over, so that her face was only a few inches from Fallyn's. "You will address me nicely, or the sedated poison in your veins _just might_ be reactivated, bitch."

That froze Fallyn in her tracks. "What did you say, shark-teeth?" she said, staring at the nurse with surprise and malice in her gaze. Sparks seemed to pass between their glares.

Not a moment before they could continue, the door burst open and no one other than the holder of the Nine Tails entered the room. His sky blue eyes took in the scene before him, a girl strapped to a chair glaring daggers at a big-breasted blonde nurse, who, immediately after the door had opened, had turned around at lightning-speed with a big innocent smile plaguing her face. He shook his own blonde-haired head, and said, "Yuhara, Granny Fifth wants to see the girl. And… uh… why is she tied to a chair?"

She laughed a little too sweetly and loudly to be real and covered her mouth with her hand. "Oh my, look at that! She _is_ tied up! She was like that when I got here, which was only about a moment ago! Dear me, will you help me untie her, Naruto-kun?" Near the end of that little innocence speech, she took a couple steps closer to Naruto and looking at him with lusty eyes, arms under her breasts and slightly pushing them upwards.

"Slut," muttered Fallyn, but Yuhara's seduction had already trapped Naruto in its web.

"Yeah, of course Yuhara-chan," he said dreamily, and took out a kunai from his pouch, quickly cutting Fallyn's bonds and freeing her from the hellish chair. She tried to get up, but her body didn't move. A severe pain erupted from her thigh, and Fallyn looked down to see that through her now nearly-destroyed jeans was a large, and spreading, black, purple, and yellow dilapidated oval-like mark. In the center of the uneven oval were two small, perfectly spaced circles. Fang marks.

Fallyn groaned, from both pain and bewilderment. "Damn snakes," she muttered, and painstakingly moved her arms to cradle her infected leg. Yuhara smirked, and Naruto looked confusedly back and forth between Fallyn and the sadistic bitch of a nurse.

But the nurse's act continued. "Oh dear! I completely forgot, this little girl here was poisoned! I was supposed to check up on her, and then go and get Miss Haruno to extract the poison, but you popped in, Naruto-kun! Would you be a good little boy and go get her for me?" Same actions as before, but this time she batted her eyelids. The infatuated Naruto nearly got a nosebleed.

"Yeah, of course-" he started, but before he was finished an unknown figure punched him in the head and he crumpled to the floor, revealing a very angry Sakura. She brushed her hands on her dress, and muttered, "Pervert," to him, and "Slut," to Yuhara. Despite the fact that Fallyn despised this particular protagonist especially, she couldn't help but to silently applaud.

Yuhara cowered in a corner, and Fallyn was shocked she could move so fast for a non-ninja. Oh, the power of fear.

Sakura stalked past the slutty and cowering nurse, sniffing indignantly as she passed her. She leaned over Fallyn's leg, and inspected it closely. Fallyn squirmed uncomfortably under her intense gaze, and Sakura cruelly poked the edge of her mark, causing a spasm of pain, saying "Stop moving." Fallyn obediently complied.

Sakura examined Fallyn's leg for a couple moments more, poking and prodding several areas around and on her injury. Finally, she straightened, and looked down at Fallyn with solemn eyes.

"Okay, this is going to hurt a little bit. I'm going to have to bring you into one of the hospital rooms next door, and we'll have to strap you down. Are you ready?" she said calmly.

"Oh, yeah, of course that's fine. Just as long as I can _move again._"

Without hesitation, Sakura grabbed Fallyn's arms and (gently) legs, and swung her around her head. She walked quickly to the doorway, and kicked Naruto out of the way, continuing down a stunning white hallway to another immaculate hospital room. Yet another steel table was in the center of the room, leather straps hanging innocently off the sides. Fallyn hissed.

Sakura crossed the room and gently laid Fallyn onto the cold metal table, and started tightening the straps around her limbs to the point of where they _barely_ hurt. Barely.

She placed her hands over Fallyn's thigh, and Fallyn prepared herself for pain. When the milky greenish light appeared around her hands, Fallyn immediately strained against the leather, the excruciating pain unimaginable. She opened her mouth to scream, but her vocal chords were also constricting with agony, so no sound came out.

Not a moment later, Fallyn was once again unconscious.

* * *

><p><strong>Ending Notes:<strong>

**HOLY CRAAAAAAP! This was by far my longest chapter, and I am very proud of how it turned out. IT WAS SO FUN TO WRITE! And I now have a plot, and I know this is going to turn out. It's a secret… but I like how it ends. XD**

**Please R&R! Flames are okay, they make me giggle.**


	7. Eyes

**Author's Note:**

**Dear god, people, you are upsetting me. THANK YOU TO YAPOOK, WHO OH-SO-KINDLY **_**REVIEWED,**_** LIKE THE GOOD LITTLE READER HE/SHE IS.****Thank you for your input. Oh, and Sasuke will not be the only person I kill. Actually, I'm really just using this fanfiction to rewrite Naruto the way I want it to be.**

**And again, Echo Uchiha, PLEASE DON'T JUST SAY "SWEET" AND COUNT THAT AS A REVIEW. NOT HELPFUL, AND ANNOYING AT THAT.**

**Sigh… I so lonely…**

**Disclaimer. I don't own it **_**yet**_**, but I will own it in the future. In the meantime, Masashi Kishimoto is holding it captive. And ruining the storyline.**

* * *

><p>Itachi and Kisame were fallowing the trail of singed plants (results of Fallyn's low flight) through the forest near Konohagakure. They were on complete guard, ready to run if any patrolling village ninja showed up.<p>

Further on the trail ended abruptly, and the imprint of a large and skinny body was still in dead grass. As Kisame examined the print to decipher how long ago Fallyn had been there, something red and black in the bushes caught Itachi's eye.

He walked past Kisame, who was babbling about scent and chakra remnants, etc. etc., and reached his hand under the bush. He gripped something crusty and clumped, and pulled out the blood-encrusted severed head of his younger brother. The glossy dead eyes stared blankly into space, completely untouched by decay. Kisame stopped prattling, and stared at Itachi as he raised his younger brother's head by the bloody hair to look it in its lifeless eyes. He quickly turned away though, when he saw Itachi's hand reach up and prepare to remove the eyes from the boy's sockets. He started mumbling again, to avoid hearing the sound of eyeballs.

When he turned again, Itachi was facing away from him. His own two eyes were discarded on the grassy floor, and Kisame could hear a slightly stomach-turning _squish_ as Itachi put in his new ones.

When Itachi turned and blinked, his Sharingan was already changing. Kisame was the first to come face to face with the Uchiha brothers' Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan. He didn't feel very honored.

He stood, and with a small nod they started to make their way to Konoha.

* * *

><p>When Fallyn woke, she was still strapped to the table. Her leg burned with a steady hum, and the early hints of a migraine were tugging at her head. The room was empty.<p>

"I…don't wanna wake up yet…" she mumbled, and half-heartedly tugged at the leather.

There was no noise outside of the closed door. There was only a constant mechanical hum and the occasional flicker of one of the dimmed lights dying out. It annoyed the hell out of the edgy girl strapped to the table in a foreign dimension.

She tried to force herself to relax and ignore the growing sense of tension rising in her gut courtesy of her manic claustrophobia. Through closed eyes, she willed herself to think about other things and tone out the hospital noises.

The first distraction that came to her mind, though, was Pein. She started, and her eyes shot open. _What the fuck was that?_ she thought, eyes panicked. Sure, the guy used to be her favorite character, but he was a jackass in real life. Still, she couldn't help but give a small smile when she remembered him kicking Hidan in the face, and his expression when she knocked him out of her chair… _Shut up. That's only two things. And a really crappy excuse for thinking about him, _she told herself angrily. Then another voice became heard in her consciousness; a very familiar companion, the Eleven Tails.

_Aww, has someone developed a small crush? Hm? Looks like you aren't homosexual after all, girl_, it taunted.

Fallyn narrowed her eyes. _Go away, creature, you aren't welcome to have a conversation with my mind. And NO, I don't have a CRUSH on him. And there was never any homosexual tendencies going through my mind and you know that, seeing as though you like to comb through my every thought._

She felt its…whatever it was in her mind… leave. She sighed in relief. Another image of Pein flashed through her mind, and she quickly smothered it and started thinking to herself again.

_You've personally know the guy for, what, three days? Four? Just because he was your favorite character in an anime shouldn't add points. Seriously, you stupid subconscious, get out of some anime dream world._

Before her mind could respond, the door burst open. Her eyes flew shut, and she struggled to keep her heart rate down, pretending to sleep. Two people walked to opposite sides of the table and quickly unstrapped her. They moved her gently onto a stretcher and smoothly walked down the hall, the movement from their footsteps not noticeable from the linen she was lying on.

They came to a halt, and _dropped_ the stretcher. Seriously, after all the trouble of being gentle, they rudely dropped her onto the cold tile floor.

Fallyn shot straight up, and before she could realize it was in a fighting stance. "What the fuck?" she said, thoroughly disgruntled. But the people who had carried her were gone.

Suddenly her feet were swept out from under her, her arms pinned painfully to her back, and her face shoved into the ground. She didn't even have the time to cry out; the wind was knocked out of her before she could react. Gasping, she turned her eyes to face her assailant. In the dim hospital light, she could see nothing but the distinctive features of a male and an undeniably familiar windswept and spiked hairstyle.

"Now now, calm down, girl," he hissed in a scolding tenor voice, increasing the pressure on her wrists. "You're going to have a little late night meeting with the Fifth Hokage, so I'd instruct you to lower your temper, if you know what's good for you. You wouldn't want to enrage Lady Fifth, or your punishment might be a little tougher than it already is, what with you being affiliated with the Akatsuki and all."

Fallyn said nothing. After the man saw that she wouldn't give him the pleasure of a reaction, he climbed off of her and brushed himself off. She was up in an instant, and confirmed that her guess was true.

Hatake Kakashi.

* * *

><p>They had been spotted. It was a mistake, really. A wild cat had launched itself at Kisame, and instinctively he had drawn Samehada to slice it cleanly in half. But that wasn't the only thing that had been butchered; Samehada's considerable size had also accidentally taken down a few trees. And as we all should know, a couple tons of wood doesn't fall silently.<p>

Once the guarding squad had come to investigate, all they saw was a flash of a red cloud before all traces of the two rogue ninja had disappeared. Startled, they had raced back to tell Tsunade that they had sighted some Akatsuki. This led to the correct assumption that the two Akatsuki had come for the Jinchuuriki that the Leaf had successfully captured. In the end, it only got Fallyn in trouble and Itachi extremely aggravated at Kisame.

Now the two criminals had to be even more cautious, making sure that even the slightest noise that had to be made was covered by a natural forest sound. That made for slow progression.

Kisame was not pleased with himself. This whole silence thing didn't go very well for him; he was a big man with a big sword, and didn't like to sneak around. Brute force was more his thing, but he knew that he couldn't take on a whole village. There was nothing he could do, and it pissed him off.

Itachi was extremely unpleased with Kisame. Being smaller and less vocal, silence was one of his more favored tactics. But with his cover blown, his advantage was gone, and the Konoha shinobi were prepared to attack. He was dying to test his new Sharingan, and he had to admit that this was the perfect time, but he had a mission at hand. And a very exasperated Pein, whose assist at world domination had slipped out of his hands, was waiting for him to come back successful or not come back at all.

Their sulking was interrupted by the snap of a twig in a nearby bush. Immediately they were still, muscles poised to fight. Slowly, they circled around the bush, daring whatever was inside to come out.

It was Tobi. The orange masked man flew out of the bush, straight up, frantically waving his hands back and forth and scream-whispering, "No! No, Kisame-senpai and Itachi- san, don't kill Tobi! Tobi just wanted to heeelp!"

Both men nearly jumped out of their skins when he shot out, but quickly relaxed. "_Tobi,_" hissed Kisame, "What the hell are you doing here?"

He started babbling, but Itachi quickly hushed them all. "Tobi," he said, strained but calm, "I have an idea. But I need your…_abilities_… to help get Fallyn-_chan_ out of the village."

Tobi stopped flailing, and gained a more sober demeanor. "Ah, so that's where the Jinchuuriki's hiding," he said in a deep tenor voice. Behind the swirled mask he smirked, mind racing to come up with a new plan to accommodate the crucial new addition to his organization.

"So tell me, Itachi, what is this plan?"

* * *

><p>"Alright, so Itachi and Kisame found the base he was holding Fallyn in, and she had escaped, so they trailed her, and found out she was in Konoha. And Tobi went to…help. That's it?" said Pein, who had calmed down and was now assessing the situation with the appropriate behavior that a leader of an S-class criminal organization should. He continued to tell himself he only went into hysterics because he had such a powerful card to play and it was stolen from right under his nose. It was easy to believe.<p>

Zetsu, who had traveled unnoticed beside the two ninja trailing the missing girl until Tobi had it under control, had come back to report to Pein and receive new orders.

Pein sighed. This is exactly why he had gone through all the trouble of traveling to the girl's dimension to take her first; so that Konoha wouldn't get her. All wasted. And he hated it when his time was wasted. He hoped _something _beneficial would come out of this whole thing.

He snapped out of his reverie, and looked sullenly down at Zetsu. "Continue watching what happens; inform me if reinforcements need to be sent out. Dismissed," he said with as must authority he could muster in his slump.

This was getting annoying.

Fallyn was rudely shoved into the Hogake's room, lit with candles. Shizune was standing faithfully to the right side of a giant desk, for once clear of papers. Lady Fifth, the one in charge of it all, sat with eyebrows were furrowed and hands interlocked in front of her moth. Her hair was slightly disheveled and her clothes weren't tied all the way; Fallyn wouldn't have been surprised if she had woken up very recently to be there. It was almost two in the morning, after all.

The room reeked of alcohol, and two empty sake bottles were in the trash can beside the massive desk. Lovely. She was drunk.

Behind her Fallyn was entranced by the village. Lanterns and light dappled the houses like fireflies. She snapped out of her trance when she realized that Tsunade was speaking.

"Huh?" she said, confused.

The blonde haired woman's eyes narrowed and she repeated herself with a very annoyed tone. "I said, welcome, Eleven Tails Jinchuuriki, it's a _pleasure _to meet you." She didn't sound very drunk. How curious…

Fallyn shook her head. "You know, I _am_ my own person. Why do I always seem to be identified by whatever the hell's inside of me all the time?" she said, feigning hurt, though smirking.

Tsunade twitched, but managed to sustain her temper. "Anyway," she said, attempting to brush it off, "You probably want to know why I called you here at such an ungodly hour."

Fallyn stared at her. "Actually, I really want to know why I'm here in the first place."

Tsunade ignored her again, and continued, "Well, there's been an unsettling event that has occurred. One of the guard squads have sighted an organization called the Akatsuki. I take it you've heard of them- because they're _looking for you_. Now, unfortunately for them, you are Konoha's prisoner, so they'll have to come in here to get you," her face contorted into a sickly sweet smile, and she used a tone of voice laced with poisonous sugar as she said the next part, "Or, possibly, we could use you as bait, and tie you to a tree for an ambush?" She _really _didn't sound drunk.

Fallyn snorted, then started to laugh, so hard that tears began to leak out of her eyes. Tsunade and Shizune watched her, slightly disturbed.

She straightened and wiped her face with her hand, still grinning. "Oh, sorry… I laugh when things are getting too intense. But seriously, do you really think they'll actually fall for that? I mean, they aren't _idiots_, or at least to some extent."

Tsunade shook her head. Actually, I was just hoping the animals would get to you first. I mean, we're going to kill you either way."

Fallyn's grin was immediately gone. She choked a little, and managed to sputter, "W-What?"

The blonde smirked, having broken the girl's haughty façade. "Oh, you didn't actually think that we would use you on our side after the Akatsuki had already gotten to you? No, it's too risky to have you in our village, and we can't have you on anyone else's side. So the only alternative is to kill you. But we may as well get two Akatsuki in the bargain, should we not?"

Shizune looked sideways at her leader, eyes wide with horror. She didn't _sound_ drunk, but after a comment like that… She knew that nothing she would say would change the woman's mind, though. Too bad, they were going to lose the Jinchuuriki…

Fallyn stared blankly at the Fifth Hokage. How could someone who claimed to be as peaceful as a shinobi village can get make such a decision? It made no sense, but she didn't want to go therapist on anyone, she wanted to get out. Accompanying the Akatsuki had been a lot more trouble than she had bargained for.

She started to turn around and make a run for it, but there was Kakashi, standing in front of the door. His eyes twinkled with victory and the next thing she knew she was unconscious, again.

* * *

><p>When she was once again alive to the world, she found herself staring through a leafy canopy of trees at a night sky. The bark of one large particular oak was shoving its uneven ridges into her spine, tweaking nerves. Her arms and legs were bound tightly, to the point where there was almost no circulation. She nearly screamed. She was going to have nightmares about rope.<p>

There were no abnormal sounds in the forest. Only the occasional song of the leaves and rare howls from god knows what were heard.

Oddly enough, she had this _feeling_ that someone was around. What she did not know was that she was sensing chakra. Having crossed the border of dimensions had awakened some new abilities.

They were positioned in a large circle around her tree, hiding in shrubs and in the branches, trying hard to smother their chakra levels and make no sound. All ready for an ambush.

The forest grew silent.

Then there was a lot of yelling.

And the next thing she knew, three people were in front of her. Two started cutting the rope that stuck her to the accursed tree, and the other scooped her up once she was free. Then they were gone.

* * *

><p>Frankly, getting anywhere near the village at that point had been nearly impossible for the trio of Akatsuki members. Searchlights from the walls, ninja waiting in bushes, ninja dogs patrolling. They had trouble getting five feet forward. It was all simply ridiculous.<p>

They had been sneaking around the village in circles, over and over, waiting for an opening in the guard to enter and start their plan. But there hadn't been _one fucking opening._ Itachi was just about ready to explode.

Kisame and Tobi/Madara weren't too pleased either, but they had enough common sense not to complain about it, seeing Itachi's fragile composure.

They all half-heartedly scanned the wall for the umpteenth time, when they saw it; finally, an opening. It took a lot of effort not to cheer.

But, of course, as expected of ninja, they did not cheer, and rather all leapt on the first and only opening that they would see. All passed right between two ninja who had just passed each other, and landed silently in an alley.

Itachi turned his red-eyed gaze towards his companions.

"Infiltration successful."

* * *

><p>"You've got to be kidding me," said Tsunade, staring disbelievingly at the Jounin in front of her.<p>

The man shook his head, his long brown hair shaking slightly. "We were watching the whole area, but they still managed to get her. Three are injured, two dead. Everyone else unconscious."

The big-chested woman immediately grabbed another bottle of sake and took a swig. She wiped her mouth in a quite unladylike fashion, and mumbled something that the Jounin had to strain to hear.

"Team Hebi."

* * *

><p><strong>Ending Notes:<strong>

**HOLY SHITTTTTT! IT'S SUMMER! FIIIINALLY! I'LL BE CRANKING OUT THE CHAPTERS AND STARTING NEW FANFICS! WOOOT!**

**Oh, and thanks to:**

**Mattie Williams: Love the comment! Thanks, and please review again for later chapters!**

**TearsOfTheFallen: O.O I'll keep writing. I don like spoons.**

**Rima-chan: Already addressed your comment.**

**miscellaneousSam: YES! YAY FOR CHAPPY INDEED!**

**PLEASE REVIEW MORE EVERYONE! I'LL EAT YOU ALL IF YOU DO BECAUSE I'M STARVING FOR MORE!**

**If you review I'll start the pairing scenes a lot sooner…**


	8. Claws and Blood

**Author's Notes:**

**Wow, it's been up for less than a day and I already have reviewers! I love you guys so much! Now, to address reviews:**

**anon: Thank you. SO MUCH,. YOU MAKE ME SO HAPPY. I LOVE YOU.**

**yapook: You know, you are now officially my favorite reviewer. On almost EVERY CHAPTER you review. And that makes me smile and dance around my living room. No joke. My family was looking at me weird. It was hilarious.**

**And regarding your question, unfortunately, they are still kinda under Orochimaru's influence, and now I'm guessing that they're just following his orders to get revenge.**

**And I'm sure there will be more by the time I finish, so I'll address you guys at the end of the chapter.**

**Just to let you guys know, I like checking out your profiles to see if any of you are interesting. And you are. I took a lot of copy and paste stuff from your profiles. Yes, I realize that sounds stalker-ish, but I like to know who's reading my story.**

**And to Echo Uchiha, I'm sorry for being bitchy. I really apologize. That was mean. GOMENASAI! I GIVE YOU VIRTUAL COOOOKIES! I SHOULDN'T BE MEAN TO MY REVIEWERS, CUZ THEN THEY MIGHT NOT REVIEW! And you shouldn't be mean to those who comment on your writing. You can be mean to a lot of other people, just not those.**

**Oh, and I finally checked me email to see who added to favorites/alerts/etc. And trust me, there were a LOT. Some of you guys have some freaking awesome pen names. I'm gonna make a tribute:**

**One Thousand Lies: I have absolutely nothing to say but AWESOME.**

**Deathsmile: Holy crap, that one is cool. I can only wonder if there's a story behind that name.**

**xXSwallowXx: Again, I am wondering if there is any story behind that one. I can come up with a couple myself, but it would be cool if you would let me know…**

**Psychotic Rose: Dear god, that one is amazing. Again again, let me know if there's a story. I REALLY want to know that one if there is.**

**Just to name a few. There's more, but you guys who actually read the author's notes, probably want to get to the chapter now. And so, like the awesome God I am (there's a story about my pen name… I gotta put it on ma profile), here's your story, after the disclaimer.**

**Discalimer: Don't own it. No Akatsuki, no Team Hebi/Taka, no Leaf, etc, etc. But, with the glorious powers of FanFiction, I can do whatever I want with them, so I don't have to own them to do what I like.**

* * *

><p>They were running. Actually, a more accurate term would be jumping. On branches. But Fallyn couldn't "enjoy the scenery", really; there was a man's chest in her way.<p>

It took Fallyn a while to realize that the chest that she was facing did not have the silky black fabric of an Akatsuki cloak. She was facing a casual white shirt.

First clue- No way in hell was this anyone from the Akatsuki. White does not fit the appearance of S-ranked criminal serial killers. Nuh-uh.

She looked up, and since the sun was just about to rise, only saw orange hair.

"Pein?" she said curiously, doubting herself. If it was him, she would be out of his arms in an instant. She was close to doing it anyway, regardless of who it was.

The orange-haired person looked down at her, and even in the dim light she recognized him.

It was Juugo.

They kept their eyes locked for quite a while, and Fallyn couldn't help but be impressed that he was doing that while hopping from tree to tree. Damn multi-taskers. She was also impressed that he could carry her with such ease, She was, after all, almost…_almost…_5' 10". Maybe because she was so damn skinny. She hated that. No damn curves to speak of.

But due to some sort of version of ADD during serious situations, she noted Juugo's interesting red/orange eyes. They were intriguing. She couldn't move her eyes away until he turned his attention back to where he was looking. Only then could Fallyn look around.

In front of Juugo, to his left, was the back of some feminine character with a flappy coat-thing and super-exposed legs. Fallyn didn't even have to think. Karin.

She could only assume that the figure to his right was Suigetsu, one of her other favorite characters. She couldn't help but smile a bit to herself.

Sadly, though she could be almost certain that they had kidnapped her to kill her or torture her or give her to Orochimaru or all the other things that her self-scarring mind could imagine, she felt at ease. These were the fun characters who totally contradicted Sasuke half the time. Though she had seen them fight, and knew that they weren't to be screwed with, she couldn't feel afraid around them.

That… would probably get her killed. She blamed it on her case of half-ADD. And her period, which she had just remembered. Lovely.

She shifted uncomfortably in Juugo's grip, trying to get his arm AWAY from…there. Bridal style doesn't help. He looked down at her oddly, and she couldn't help but blush. Damn face.

"Sorry…just having… technical difficulties…" she mumbled, her throat closing in her embarrassment. She barely choked out those words. He shook his head and turned back to the terrain. Fallyn resisted the urge to pet his hair. It had been something she had wanted to do to half the characters. And hug Gaara. And Nagato, but she doubted that she would do that now. She shook those thoughts out of her mind.

In front, Suigetsu called out, "I think we're far enough. We can make camp here."

Then they were all flying down to the ground. Fallyn's stomach rose through her mouth, and she buried her head in Juugo's shirt.

Whoops, sorry all anime characters she had pledged to marry when she was fourteen.

They hit the grass lightly, barely making an impact. Juugo looked down at her, at a loss for what to do, and Suigetsu and Karin looked over at the awkward situation. Suigetsu snickered, but that was expected from him. I mean come on, it was Suigetsu.

When Fallyn realized that they were no longer falling, she unclasped her hands from her transporter's shirt and pulled her head away, face a deep pink. She wriggled out of Juugo's grip, and stood a couple feet away from him, thoroughly embarrassed.

_That was new,_ hissed the Ryuubi in a deep voice for a female, _Could that be… a _fear_, hmm? Scared of heights, are we? How ironic, that I am a flying creature. Amusing._

Fallyn twitched, and exiled the creature inside her to the corners of her mind.

Karin huffed, and said in an annoyingly high-pitched voice, "Now that you're done molesting Juugo, _whore_, I'd like you to let us tie you up and question you."

Fallyn stared at her, first surprise by hearing her voice in English instead of Japanese like she was used to, snapped out of her daze and snorted. "Like hell I'm going to _let _you tie me up, bitch. And since when am _I_ the whore, Miss Shorty-shorts? Excuse me for being _kidnapped._"

The look on the red-head's face was absolutely _priceless._ Suigetsu started laughing outright, but quickly covered his mouth. That didn't help, really, but he did it anyway. After recovering from initial shock, she glared at Suigetsu with all her might. But daggers were too small to describe the look she gave Fallyn. It was less like daggers, more like harpoons, javelins, broadswords, and Zabuza's sword coming at her in an onslaught of deadly metal. It _almost _noticeably rivaled what Fallyn, in a fit of sugar-free-cookie-induced highness (Yeah, the Ryuubi didn't understand it either), had deemed Itachi's Glare of Complete and Ultimate Demise. It's funny how high people can use big words.

She stormed over to the tall girl, reached up, and slapped/clawed the cheek that did not have the scar. Four long, ugly red lines immediately formed and started seeping blood. Fallyn just stood there, shocked. She didn't cry, though; she hadn't cried in such a long time that she couldn't remember.

She reached a slightly shaky hand up towards her cheek, and gently wiped the blood off her face. She looked at the red smeared across her slender hand, and was reminded from a song on her iPod, which she sadly remembered was in her bag. And her bag was back in Konoha. She stared singing softly to herself while wiping her crimson hand on her tattered jeans.

"There's blood on my hands like the blood in you, some things can't be treated so don't make me don't make me be myself around you," she whisper-sang, earning a few odd stares from the others in the clearing. She ignored them, and noticed that the majority of the blood didn't end up on fabric, it ended up on skin.

Her jeans were so ripped up that they hung in scraps around her legs. If she was to cut off the loose fabric, she would have been wearing shorts shorter than the red-headed whore who had just clawed her face.

Her shirt looked, to put it simply, like shit. It was torn and shredded in such a fashion many would call "explicit". Her bra was showing in several places, and she moved her arms up to cover the black fabric.

By doing that, she got a good look at her grimy arms. Blackish dirt coated her skin, and she could easily assume that the same went for her face. Her black nail polish was horribly chipped, and several nails were broken to the point of bleeding.

She didn't even want to think about how nasty her hair was, how chapped her lips were, or, god forbid, how… ruined… her panties were.

But there was one good thing; her trusty old Converse. Though a bit more dust than before, it had surprisingly survived with only a few tears in the tough fabric. She sighed in relief, and rubbed one shoe on her leg as a sign of endearment. She didn't know what she would do if her beloved Converse hadn't survived the battles she had fought.

It's kind of sad that in her current situation, she was thinking about sneakers. Simply pitiful, but then again, it seemed to be less and less like ADD and more and more like a coping mechanism.

She was _kicked _out of her reverie. In the stomach.

Not pleasant.

She crumbled to the floor, arms protectively folded over her abdomen. Coughing viciously, she watched as red splattered onto the grass in front of her. Karin stood above her, a victorious look painted all over her face.

"Hey, Karin, I know she killed Sasuke and all, but do you really have to be so violent about it?" asked Suigetsu, giving her a disapproving look. When he saw the slightly surprised glare Karin shot at him, he hurriedly added in, "I mean, I'm all for torture and crap, but seriously, you're supposed to attack if they refuse to answer or something like that. Not just… attack."

The teen shook her head and sighed. "Whatever, Suigetsu," she said, annoyed. Turning her attention back to the other female, who was still hunched over in a ball on the floor, she said venomously, "Okay, Eleven Tails bitch. Did you kill Sasuke?"

Fallyn looked up at her, and slowly twisted herself up into a sitting position, leaning against a nearby tree. She stared warily at the angry female, her grey-gold gaze unsettling the kunoichi. "Um… Technically, no." She winced slightly, and waited for another angry onslaught. But she wasn't wincing from fear; the demon dragon didn't seem to enjoy Karin's company, and its rage was boiling under Fallyn's skin. She could barely sustain it.

But the redhead only stared blankly down at the bleeding girl. "Um… explain."

Fallyn sighed, and donned a very Shikamaru-like expression of annoyance. "Um did you _not _see me a couple of days ago, in the… what would you call it… Eleven Tails Cloak?"

Suigetsu snorted, and Fallyn turned her piercing gaze to observe him, leaning against a tree a couple of feet away. Juugo was sitting on the floor, leaning on the same tree, a little sparrow perched on his finger. She tuned Suigetsu out and observed the adorable scene before her.

She came to when Karin's nails/claws were snapping sharply in front of her face. She started slightly, but that only resulted in another coughing fit.

Once it had passed, she said huskily, "Huh?"

Karin rolled her eyes and repeated herself, "Okay, I'll give you the Eleven Tails mind control or whatever you want to call it. But we still can't forgive you. Orochimaru promised our freedom if we bring you back. But thanks to you, we don't know _what _we're going to do. But that doesn't concern you."

Fallyn looked disbelievingly at all of them. "You really think he's going to let you go?" she said doubtfully.

Suigetsu shook his head, and both girls turned their attention to him. "No, we don't. We got a plan. But unfortunately for you, you aren't included in our escape. So go to sleep; you gotta run on your own tomorrow."

With a nod, both he a Juugo stood and crossed to a clearing a little ways off. Karin fumed, pissed at having the hard work left to her. Sighing, she removed some rope from her pouch, and leapt on Fallyn. She fought off her squirming mass, and eventually Fallyn was bound once again, still bleeding, to a branch. At that point, she swore that she would burn every rope she ever saw again.

* * *

><p>Kisame and Itachi were running silently down several dark alleys, making their way to the large red building in front of the Hokage faces. The whole city was quiet; only a few windows were lit.<p>

Sadly, the goal of this plan, nor any of its components, was not to massacre the whole village/ninja/Hokage, it was to glean information and get Fallyn back. In no way was the Hokage to be alerted of their presence.

Madara had already arrived at the red building and had killed all of the guards on patrol outside. When Itachi and Kisame arrived, they found him leaning casually against a wall, wiping blood from his hands. He looked up when they landed, and smirked. "Plan starts now," he said, and they split up once again.

Kisame and Itachi left Madara at they wall, sneaking in through unwisely opened windows. They split up down hallways, and killed everyone they met as they went along, leaving a claret trail. It was a good stress reliever.

Madara, still outside, was counting up seconds until he reached five minutes exactly. They had said that they should have killed any who would be a threat by that time. Once he reached his number, he was gone, Mangekyou glinting in victory.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, after Madara had transported, Kisame got bored. He had killed everyone of interest, and he hadn't met up with Itachi yet. He decided to explore the nearby hospital, and maybe torture some souls for his own amusement.<p>

He came upon a door, and a window next to it showed a side alley. Grinning, he slid the window open without a sound, and slipped out, leaving scarlet fingerprints on the glass.

* * *

><p>Itachi, on the other hand, simply sat in the corner of an empty room when he was finished, and meditated. His bloodlust was out of control; and it had been amazing to kill with his new eyes, but also extremely exhausting. He sighed, content with his improved abilities and vision. It had been the first time in years that he could actually relax without the constant nagging of the disease corrupting his body. His guard was still up, though; he was still in enemy territory. He told himself that once he had calmed down enough not to kill any person that he saw (AKA Kisame and Madara), he would go to the meeting place at the top of the Fifth Hogake's head.<p>

* * *

><p>Madara transported right behind the Hokage's partially open door. His part of the mission was to glean information by listening in to the Hokage's conversations, and hopefully catch her speaking with Fallyn, if they were extremely lucky. Which they usually weren't.<p>

He peered through the crack in the door, and saw a dimly lit room, the Hokage at her massive desk and her loyal slave-dog (whose name escaped him because she was so irrelevant to him) was sitting faithfully next to her. One lone Jounin was giving his report, but he had finished once Madara had actually tuned in. He cursed silently, and waited for that Hokage to give her response.

He watched as she took a huge swig out of a sake bottle, and smirked when he realized that she was drunk. He barely heard her say the words "Team Hebi."

Damn. That added some complications.

* * *

><p>Kisame was pleased. After torturing several hospital patients, killing four and fatally maiming the rest, he was satisfied with just wandering around the white hallways, scaring the living shit out of nurses he passed and killing them, too.<p>

But suddenly he felt the traces of the Ryuubi's chakra coming from a hallway to his right. Without hesitation, he took several large shark-man steps and stopped in front of a steel door.

At least they weren't _complete _idiots, and knew to have some kind of protection. Though Kisame heavily doubted the door would restrain the Jinchuuriki for more than three seconds.

He tried the handle- unlocked. He took what he had just thought back. They _were_ idiots. Unless the girl wasn't there.

He walked in on an almost empty room- almost. A big-breasted blonde nurse was cowering in the corner of a nearly destroyed room. She was mumbling obscenities at nobody, but they were mostly including Fallyn. He snickered, and the woman looked up.

He was surprised at what large teeth she had. It was slightly disturbing, but he wasn't really one to talk. She looked up at him with widening blue eyes, scared out of her wits.

Kisame wasn't feeling _merciful_; he just didn't want to deal with the girl if she started screaming. He sliced her head clean off in less than a second, and it rolled to a corner, eyes slowly losing the sparkle of fear and hazing into death, and leaving a long, dripping trail of crimson behind it.

* * *

><p>In Fallyn's sleep, she smiled, a warm feeling of justice spreading through her dreamscape.<p>

* * *

><p>Kisame sighed, and looked around the room once again. The girl had definitely been in here- the room still reeked of the demon's chakra, even if it was over a day old. He saw her bag in the corner, battered, ripped, and slightly singed in several places. He rolled his eyes, picked it up, and started to make his way to the meeting point.<p>

* * *

><p>Itachi wiped his face, trying to rub the exhaustion out of his brain. With great effort, he stood, and crawled out a window. He was immediately met with a lone guard, looking out at the city through binoculars. The Jounin turned to face Itachi when he heard the tired man come through the window, and dropped his binoculars with a clatter, immediately drawing a kunai.<p>

"Who the hell are you, huh?" he said menacingly, brandishing the knife.

Itachi only sighed, eyes close, as if the man wasn't worth his time and he wished he would just go away. Which was actually exactly what he was thinking. He opened one eye and fixed the ninja in a red-eyed glare, trapping the man like a snake and a mouse.

It only took a moment before the man was writhing on the floor, muscles twitching erratically. Blood leaked from his mouth and nose, then it was coming out his pores, coating him in a thin sheen of blood-sweat. Then he lay still.

Itachi wiped his sweaty brow with the sleeve of his cloak, and jumped up to the current Hokage's stone monument.

* * *

><p>Kisame and Itachi arrived at the same time, and silently regarded each other with a slight nod. Madara was already waiting for them, arms crossed.<p>

"Find anything useful?" he asked, looking pointedly at Kisame.

The blue man nodded. He produced the girl's messenger bag from the folds of his cloak, and dropped it gently to the stone under them. "Found the room she was kept in. In the hospital. Her chakra was practically _coating _everything. But it was almost two days old, so they might have moved her somewhere else."

The masked man shook his head, and roughly toed the bag. "She isn't here. Team Hebi took her, and they're probably going back to one of Orochimaru's bases."

Itachi, who hadn't participated in the conversation because he was still recovering from his last "battle", looked at Madara expectantly. "Sasuke's dead, Madara," he strained.

The man nodded. "I know, Itachi-san. Oh, and congratulations on your new _eyes_, yes?" he said, smirking under the cover of his swirled mask. He was ignored, but he knew that Itachi got the message: _Don't mess._

"Well, it can't be too hard to track down some teenagers, can it? And I don't expect Fallyn to go down without a fight, from what I've seen so far. Let's go," he said, and they did.

* * *

><p><strong>Ending Notes:<strong>

**Ha! Another chapter within days of the previous. I'm feeling accomplished.**

**The song Fallyn was singing was called "Blood On My Hands" by The Used. Awesome song for those morbid people XD!**

**Okay, and let me address something- Kisame/Itachi/Madara are a couple days behind Fallyn. For example, their point of view in this chapter was when Fallyn was talking to Tsunade/being tied to a tree/getting kidnapped by Sasuke's personal fanclub.**

**The next chapter… is going to be **_**fuuuuuuun**_**… *Evil grin, rubs hands together***

**REVIEW AND I'LL LOVE YOU FOREVER!**


	9. Fireworks

**Author's Notes:**

**I just read a romance fanfiction, and I realized, **_**M-chan, you have GOT to start the pairing scenes. Stop making fillers and get your OC back to the damn base so you can actually start your plot and the fucking pairing. **_**And so, in this chappy Fallyn's gonna get back to the base. This is gonna be a looooong chapter. Fuck.**

**Hint hint:**

**Fireworks. Pyromaniacs rejoice.**

**And to fulfill dear yapook's request, I will have Pein beat on Orochimaru's ass. Unfortunately, I do not exactly know Orochimaru's techniques, so I'll have an intro and Pein will come back all dirty and stuff cuz he can't bleed cuz he's kinda zombie-ish. Sorry for the ripoff, I don't feel like watching every single Naruto episode with Orochimaru in order to analyze every technique he uses, and I don't feel like writing some big-ass ninja fight scene that would take six pages of mind-exploding crap.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the franchised Naruto. That one belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. But I do own this version of Naruto, but sadly, this version is not franchised so I cannot make a profit other than writing skills and the warm giggly feeling I get when people review. WHICH THEY HAVEN'T. Except for dear Echo Uchiha. Thank you.**

* * *

><p>When Fallyn woke up, the sun was directly overhead, shoving its happy rays down her throat. She tried to roll over and pull the covers over her head, only to find no warm, dark comforter, mo warm bed, and no use in her arms. Her creaked open and strained at the sun, which was fighting of her drowsiness and winning, to her great dismay. Once her eyes got used to the sunlight, she looked around, and everything that had happened the past… She didn't even know how many days had gone by. They all were merged into a giant bubble of hell. It had to have been at least two days.<p>

Struggling to sit up, her arms screamed in protest. They were twisted painfully behind her back and lashed together with the devil's new favorite weapon: rope. She felt like they were about to dislocate from her shoulders, and it was pure agony.

The next thing she was bothered by was her extremely itchy right cheek. She remembered being mauled by a PMSing red she-bear, and used every ounce of her willpower to suppress the urge to satisfy the impulse on a tree.

Then two mundane urges hit her full force- the urge to eat and the urge to…relieve herself. It was almost inhuman not to have eaten/drank/relieved oneself for two days. She had to take some of the willpower not to itch to resist the urge to scream.

Unfortunately, though, her stomach screamed for her. In one long, loud, _lovely_ growl. But growl is possibly a bit of an understatement. Ever played those video games where there's a giant monster and goes GRAAAAAWR a lot? It sounded more like that. Just not as…echo-y.

She stared at her stomach, surprised that her little stomach could make such a monstrous sound. Must be because she was a vegetarian. Hm. Didn't make much sense, but whatever.

Sadly, that beast howl called the attention of some certain ninja in a nearby clearing.

"Oi, finally up, are we?" called Suigetsu, grinning. Karin came closely behind him, and whacked the back of his head, causing him to hunch over and glare.

"How can you act so friendly around the person who killed Sasuke, you dobe?" she yelled, and Fallyn grimaced as her eardrums were assaulted by her terrible voice.

Suigetsu shrugged, and grinned again. "I thought the Eleven Tails killed him, right? It's not her fault it's inside of her, no need to be so bitchy, Karin-_baka_." He ran across the clearing, laughing loudly, before the angry teen could hit him again.

Fallyn was reminded why she loved Suigetsu so much.

He ignored the fuming Karin, and quickly cut the ropes binding the Jinchuuriki. She let out a cry, a mixture of pure delight and slight agony as her muscles came back to their original positions. She slumped to the floor, grinning in ecstasy. Suigetsu smirked, and crouched down beside her.

"As I said before, you're gonna be running yourself today," he whispered, and walked away.

And that was one of the reasons that she _didn't _like Suigetsu. He stands up for you, then leaves you on your own. Can't say she blamed him, though.

With great effort, she hauled herself off of the soft grass that surrounded her. Her muscles creaked and groaned, making her gasp sharply. When she relaxed, she glared at Karin, and rushed into a bush to maintain her body's healthy levels.

She contemplated escape, but quickly shoved the idea out of her mind. If she were to even attempt, the others would soon catch up to her, and that would mean more rope to ensure no other way of exit. She shuddered at the thought.

_May as well stay with them for the time being, _she thought. _Who knows; a better way of escaping might come up later. There is no way in hell I'm going back to the snake man, though._

Juugo, Karin, and Suigetsu were standing in a large clearing, trying to teach one of the most basic ninja techniques to a certain seventeen year old girl who had no idea how to access her chakra.

* * *

><p>After twenty minutes of absolutely nothing, they decided to just let Fallyn learn to run fast on her own. Taking off at inhuman speed, they left Fallyn standing in the dust, feeling hopeless.<p>

She decided to just run as fast as she could. She could summon small amounts of chakra at random times, so as she tried to keep up with the practiced ninja she would suddenly move quickly in small bursts of speed. It was enough to keep them within sight, and to keep her within theirs.

By the time they stopped for a short rest, Fallyn couldn't move. If anything, she had gotten even skinnier and her bones jutted sharply out. It surprised her how much one could change in two days. Or maybe that was just her; there were a couple common aspects about her that weren't normal with the average Joe.

She immediately fell to the ground, and sighed loudly as her muscles finally got the necessary amount of oxygen that they had been deprived of. Breathing in the sweet smell of grass, she nearly fell asleep.

Nearly.

"Oi, what the hell is wrong with you?" said Karin loudly, right into her ear. She was starting to develop a headache from dehydration; running hadn't helped because of sweat, and this little piss was certainly not improving it. She only groaned in response.

Juugo finally decided to speak for the first time that day, though he said only "She's hungry" and went back to…talking with birds.

"That true, girl?" said Karin, looking down at Fallyn. She lifted her head and weakly nodded, before dramatically dropping her head back to the grass with another groan, this time from her stomach, causing Suigetsu to snicker.

Karin sighed, and crouched down next to the skinny girl. "Okay, look; we're almost to a village, where we're gonna stop for tonight. We'll get you some food. Till then you'll have to suck it up and keep running."

Fallyn groaned, and pushed herself off the ground, barely managing to stand. She wasn't being melodramatic; she had seriously overexerted herself.

They started running again, and Fallyn put in as much effort as she could to make her muscles work again. It took two hours for them to finally arrive, and by that time Fallyn was near passing out from dehydration.

When they checked into an inn, Fallyn collapsed on the floor, even more exhausted than she thought was possible. Karin and Suigetsu also collapsed, but on the two separate beds in the room, completely forgetting the girl on the floor. Juugo, on the other hand, helped Fallyn up and half-helped half-carried her malnutrition-rampant body to the inn's kitchen.

The well-fed cook threw a fit when she saw the walking skeleton of a girl, and put a large bowl of nikujaga (Japanese beef stew) in front of her. Fallyn looked down at the food, and back up at the cook with wide eyes and mouthed "vegetarian" to her.

The paunch woman's eyes hardened and she shoved a bowl of steamed rice and vegetables and a glass of water in front of the girl with a sneer before stomping to enjoy her meats.

Fallyn launched herself at the bowl, and even though starving she did not wolf it down noticeably. She had too much pride to eat like a pig.

Once she was finished (Juugo didn't have to wait very long) she walked back to the room with her orange headed escort. He plopped himself down on a couch and was immediately dead to the world, without even tying her up.

_It's too bad that he trusts me, _thought Fallyn sadly. Juugo really was one of her favorite characters.

She crept over to Suigetsu and started to gingerly look through his bag. She produced his wallet, and smirked to herself before lowering herself out of an open window.

* * *

><p>She had a plan. As they were coming in to the village, Fallyn had managed to look around despite her hazed vision. They had passed through a small street festival, where she had seen a creepy man selling fireworks. That's when she finally got the idea for her escape.<p>

It was around ten o'clock, and the festival was still going strong. Colorful paper lanterns hung on stings in front of brightly lit shops, and young couples were giggling and talking while enjoying all they could. She watched them for a moment, enjoying the peace.

The fireworks man was still sitting on the corner of the street, a small cup of tea in his hand. He was talking to a young man who closely resembled him; it might have been his son. The younger one walked away soon after, and Fallyn approached the seller.

The man stared at her for a moment, a shocked look on his face, most likely from her physical appearance. Fallyn tried her hardest not to look self conscious, but she knew she looked like she had been fighting wild animals.

The man shook his head and set his tea down, bowing his head apologetically. "I'm sorry for my rude behavior. Is there anything I can help you with, miss?"

She nodded and removed Suigetsu's wallet from her hole-riddled pocket. "May I buy some small fireworks, sir?"

Grinning, he pulled five small cylinders from a box. "These are powerful, miss. Smallest, but third brightest out of all I've got. All five for 1000 ryo, hm?"

Fallyn mentally converted that into her own American currency. She had read and re-read the Naruto series countless times, so she knew the basic fundamentals of its currency. One thousand ryo… was about one hundred dollars.

Damn, fireworks were expensive.

She had to ask a random couple what ryo looked like, and they helped her out, much to her extreme relief. She paid the man and shoved the cylinders into her less destroyed pocket and decided to wander around before returning to captivity.

The night was warm, and stars littered the sky, surrounding a slim crescent moon. Breathing in the fresh air, she wandered between shops, eyeing clothing with longing, but never purchasing any. She had already taken a considerable toll on poor Little Shark Boy's wallet.

She returned to the inn, and scaled the wall slowly before slipping in through the still open window.

Everyone seemed to be asleep, so she returned Suigetsu's wallet and took her place on the floor.

She did not see Juugo's reddish orange eyes watching her every move.

* * *

><p>By morning the stupid little explosive cylinders had left rectangular imprints in her thighs since she had slept on them. The only bright side was that they weren't as prominent now; they were inside of her leg.<p>

She woke to the other three getting ready, and not very silently. Objects were dropped, Suigetsu was pushed out of his bed, etc. etc. Not a very good alarm.

When they were returning their keys, the cook from the day before threw a piece of bread at Fallyn, which she easily caught, being well coordinated and all. She smiled softly at the woman and bowed her head in thanks and watched as she huffed away. Nibbling at the dry bread as they walked, Fallyn's mind was furiously working to develop an important part of her escape plan. She needed a way to distract her captors while she executed the rest of her plan.

Juugo watched the girl silently as Suigetsu and Karin argued at the front. Her eyebrows were furrowed in thought and she had a troubled look on her face. He knew she was planning something.

When they reached the outskirts of the village, the three ninja took off. Fallyn sighed and started running at a breakneck speed to catch up with them, assisted by her more frequent bursts of chakra. She was slowly, _slowly_ getting better.

They ran nonstop all day. By the time night had fallen, the Jinchuuriki was on the verge of melting.

When she finally caught up with them, they had already set out their mats and started a small, unnoticeable fire. The three ninja lay around it, eating hardtack.

All looked up when she entered the clearing, favorite MCR (My Chemical Romance, people, My Chemical Romance…) shirt even more destroyed than it had been that morning, jeans just loose scraps. Shoes, thankfully, still in one piece.

She flopped onto the dusty ground with a sigh. Her breathing was irregular and ragged, and she was almost coughing blood from the exertion of running without any nutrients.

Chakra burns a lot of friggin calories. That was why she had lost so much weight in the past few days.

Karin immediately inched away from the exhausted girl, hand over her nose. "Oh god, you smell…and look… like shit!"

Fallyn's eyes flickered up to look at the complaining female, amber gray eyes glinting with annoyance and-though Karin could not tell- mischief. "Shut up. It's your freaking fault you didn't let me take a shower, bitch."

Karin fumed, but she was too tired to take revenge. She rolled over and fell asleep.

From her position on the ground, Fallyn knew that the time to initiate her plan was now. She started to plot in her head, mind gears working.

Suigetsu regarded Fallyn for a moment, and then whispered something to Juugo. The orange haired boy-man stood and pulled the thinking girl off the ground, and helped her regain her balance before leading her off. Suigetsu sighed, content with shirking a duty, and he too fell asleep.

Fallyn watched Juugo very closely as he led her through the forest. Staring straight ahead with a blank expression, she had no idea what he was going to do. She hated emotionless people. At least Pein got pissed sometimes. This guy was just… indescribably boring.

Soon they came upon a large pool of water that connected two separate small rivers. The water was clear, and the bottom of the pool was covered in soft white sand. Groups of tadpoles and minnows were flitting around in the water, and fireflies adorned the air like tiny yellow stars. It looked like something out of a fairy tale.

Fallyn appraised the pool with glee. A _bath_. Grinning wildly, she almost clapped her hands in joy, but had to remind herself that she was seventeen, not four.

But her happiness was broken by the sound of Juugo clearing his throat. She turned to him, waiting for him to say something. She didn't wait long.

"I know you're planning to escape," he said calmly, staring at her with his flame-colored eyes.

Fallyn paled slightly, but said, "Whatever might you be talking about, Juugo-san? Why would I try to escape?"

Sighing, he shook his head. "No one would willingly go to Orochimaru's base. But don't be scared, I'm not telling the others."

She paused, waiting for some catch or something. There was no way, no matter how nice the guy was, that he was going to _allow _her to escape. Or maybe she had severely underestimated Juugo's kindness levels.

When he said nothing, she replied, "Huh?"

A miniscule grin sparked on his face. "I would never want anyone, no matter what they've done, to be sentenced to Orochimaru's experiments."

She paused, hardly believing him. "Then what _are_ you going to do?"

"Nothing," he said simply. "Right now I am one of three obstacles in your way to escape. If I do nothing, then you have one less person to deal with and I do not betray my friends. As long as you promise not to hurt them, of course."

Yep, Juugo was definitely one of her favorite characters.

* * *

><p>Fallyn never did get her bath. That was Juugo's excuse to be off somewhere else when she was escaping.<p>

She was setting up the five cylinders in a pentagon in a small clearing a little ways from the camp. That was when she encountered her first problem.

She had nothing to light the fuses with.

"SHIT!" she said loudly, hitting her head on a tree. Second problem.

Suigetsu and Karin.

"What the hell?" said the shark boy as he and Karin raced into the clearing. They stared, surprised, at the cylinders on the floor, and the Juugo-less Fallyn before them.

Simultaneously they launched themselves at the girl, and she narrowly dodged. Her mind was racing, trying to find a way to light the fuses while avoiding the two trained ninja out to take her down.

She continued to run around the clearing in random directions, succeeding in one thing but failing at the other. No ideas came to mind, so she started doing random things in hope that one would work. The first idea was to do random hand seals in hopes that she could attempt some kind of jutsu.

After imitating a couple of things she had seen on the anime, she felt something warm in her stomach, then her esophagus, and finally burning her tongue. She opened her mouth in surprise- and a long jet of grey-gold flame ejected from her mouth, lighting both the clearing and every cylinder of explosives on fire.

The cylinders shot up into the air and burst, sending spirals, tendrils, and ten other patterns of colored sparks through the air. They fell like fiery rain, and then individual sparks lit again, in new patterns.

Totally worth the one thousand ryo.

Karin and Suigetsu had stopped their onslaught to watch the display, and realized that those were the cylinders. They quickly averted their attention back to Fallyn, who was staring in wonder at her hands and touching her lips and tongue to make sure they were still there.

That was when the third problem happened- her hair caught on fire. She was immediately on the floor, rolling around on the dirt, adding the smell of burning hair to the other smells of other burning materials.

Karin and Suigetsu were immediately on her, each holding a separate arm. Fallyn struggled and squirmed to no avail, and slumped in defeat. She hoped to god that the Eleven Tails would come to her rescue again when she was with Orochimaru.

Her dark thoughts were interrupted by two kunai flying at her captors. They both let her go to dodge, and drew weapons of their own, waiting for the assailants to show themselves.

After waiting several moments, the heat in the burning clearing became to unbearable and they turned to retrieve Fallyn and escape.

But Fallyn was gone.

* * *

><p>Itachi, Kisame, and Tobi had traveled for days, following the trail of the Ryuubi's not-so-discreet chakra levels. They were thankful that she hadn't learned how to hide her chakra, let alone anything else. If she knew any jutsu, they had no doubt that she would have a lot more people coming after her.<p>

It was ridiculous that she could go so far despite her poor chakra control. It was probably because she was being carried, probably one of the larger members of Orochimaru's fanclub.

The village that she had stayed in wasn't a village with ninja, thank god- attention was the last thing the Akatsuki trio needed.

One night when sleeping in a tree, Tobi fell off his branch when a large crack resounded through the silent forest. Itachi and Kisame, who had been on firmer branches, were immediately standing and observing the surrounding area. Tobi groaned from the bottom of the tree, but was back and standing next to his companions in moments.

It wasn't long until they spotted a blaze about a mile off, and they confirmed the location when the fireworks went off. They were instantly running in the direction of the burning spot.

It didn't take long, and when they came up on the blaze they saw Fallyn rolling around on the floor, hair on fire. Then the two from Hebi grabbed her and almost took her away- but Itachi threw two well-aimed kunai at them and she was released. They were on their guard… but Madara teleported next to her, picked her skinny little body up, and transported back to the tree, where he was soon joined by the other two criminals.

They lay Fallyn down, and looked over her wounds. She was dazed, and had occasional coughing fits- that seemed to be the extent of internal injuries. Outside was a completely different story; she was severely underfed and dehydrated, and was constantly wracked with shivers. She had puked a couple times, and her lips were very pale and chapped. Malnutrition had also caused her other external injuries to take longer to heal, so her various scratches and bruises were still hurting constantly. She was almost skeletal, and her utterly massacred clothing was hanging limply in shreds.

Gist: She looked like shit.

* * *

><p>Pein was sitting in his office, furiously going through page after page of paperwork, desperate to get his mind off his lost trump card. Zetsu had showed up only to tell him that Sasuke Uchiha was dead and his team had taken Fallyn captive before leaving again. He hadn't com back since, and he was prepared to go to every one of Orochimaru's bases and kick that creepy snake-man's ass.<p>

He would wait one more day.

* * *

><p>The other three Akatsuki members took turns carrying Fallyn back to the base, feeding her bread and soup along the way. They didn't want to attend to her until it was safe to stop.<p>

Pein had waited long enough. He slipped out of the base after writing a note and made his way over to Orochimaru's forest base. Little did he know that right as he made it to the forest near Konoha Zetsu appeared in his office bearing news.

When he saw the empty office and the note, he snatched it off the large desk and quickly scanned over it with his luminescent yellow eyes.

"Dammit," he said, and disappeared back into the floor to catch up to his leader.

* * *

><p>When Fallyn arrived at the base she wasn't as sick as before. In fact, she was almost completely back to normal. Having the Ryuubi's constant powerful chakra in her helped her recover once she got proper nutrients.<p>

**(IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE!**

**I need to change Fallyn's height. Pein is 5' 9" and she is currently 5' 10". That doesn't really work. SHE IS NOW FIVE FOOT SEVEN!)**

The base was a moderately cool cave filled with many caverns and passageways that served as rooms and halls. Some rooms were furnished with simple chairs, tables, etc., while others were just empty.

Fallyn was led down two hallways and through more caverns than she could count, and they eventually came upon an entry to another space covered by a crude door. Six other doors adorned this particular passageway, and Fallyn could only assume that those were the others partners' bedrooms.

The other three ninja walked down the halls to their respective rooms, leaving her alone in the hallway. She sighed, and opened the door, not expecting to be surprised.

She wasn't.

She faced a small round-yet-square-ish room, a twin bed in the corner, a desk to the opposite wall, and a door leading to what she hoped was a bathroom. Two boxes served as storage.

Sighing, she prepared to unpack her bag, but realized that she had left it when she had fallen unconscious. She had also left… she shuddered at the thought… Sasuke's head.

Racing down the hall, she opened the door to the room she had seen Itachi and Kisame go into. Their room was larger, but then again, it had to accommodate two people. Two beds were on opposite sides of the room, and you could almost see the imaginary borderline between territories. Itachi's side of the room was immaculate; Fallyn doubted that there was even a speck of dust _anywhere_. His side of the room was made up of a bed and a door similar to Fallyn's- definitely a bathroom.

The other side of the room was littered with weapons, magazines, and manga. Fallyn was surprised; Kisame didn't seem the type to read comics. It wasn't until she saw the cover of one did she understand- Porn. She sniffed in disgust, drawing the attention to herself.

Clearing her throat, she said quietly, "Did you guys happen to see my bag when you were trying to find me?"

Itachi exited the bathroom, hair damp and a towel around his waist. Fallyn was instantly facing the wall behind her, blushing furiously even though Itachi was definitely not her favorite character.

Damn emotionless people.

He ignored her and grabbed clothes before going back into the bathroom to change. Fallyn sighed in relief, and rubbed her face with a cold, slender hand, trying to rub the heat away.

Kisame snickered and pulled the bag out from under his bed. He tossed it to her while saying, "There was nothing interesting in there. You forgot clothes, you idiot."

That only caused her to blush furiously, and she got the desperate urge to leave. But she forced herself to stay; she had to talk to Itachi.

He didn't take long, and was quickly back out and dressed. Fallyn envied him for being clean- she had to find clothes before she could be.

"He was toweling his hair, and looked up at her while doing so. "You wanted to speak with me?" he said calmly.

"Um…yeah…" she had made eye contact and had noticed the new design of Sharingan, and was immediately entranced. He broke eye contact, enabling her to speak again.

"Um, I see you've gotten your brother's eyes… that's good… I'll be leaving now," she mumbled, and exited the cavern.

* * *

><p>The Six Paths of Pain were practically flying through the forest, getting very close to the base. They were on their guard, but after circling the entrance for a while it was deemed safe to enter.<p>

One large Path broke down the door, and Chikushodo rushed in and caught it before it could echo and alert the Sannin of their presence.

The Animal path summoned a small lizard, and sent it to scout for forms of heat nearby. They patiently waited, and around five minutes later the small reptile returned and led them down several halls.

It stopped when they reached a set of double doors to what could have been a larger room. Without hesitation, Pein pushed them both open (slightly dramatically) and the other five Paths shot out from behind him to surround the room.

It was a high-ceilinged cavern lit with sconces shaped with snakes surrounding the flame. The floor was crowded with test tables, jars filled with unidentifiable objects, and steel tables. Beakers bubbling with neon liquids were scattered on almost every available surface.

The center of the room was clear, and it was there that they found the snake-like man. The other Paths were spread out along the outskirts of the room, some with weapons drawn and others ready to perform jutsu. The Deva Path still stood in the doorway, and was staring at Orochimaru.

He turned to the angry man and grinned, putting down the colorful beakers he held. "Why hello there, _Leader-sama_," he sneered, leering, "And what might be the reason you have graced my presence?"

"Give her back," said Pein through gritted teeth, fists clenched.

"Who? Oh, you mean the girl who killed my prodigy and destroyed my favorite base?" he said in a sickly sweet tone, "I'm sorry, but she's not available now."

Rage boiled inside of Pein, and he lashed out, throwing a shuriken at the other man's head. He easily dodged, but that didn't matter.

"_What did you do?_" he hissed, anger distorting his normally cool features.

The snake Sannin cackled, and shook his head. "Nothing at all, my friend, nothing at all."

Every Path shot themselves at

* * *

><p>Fallyn could not find clothes. She did not want to borrow them from any other male, and she didn't know where Konan was. She wanted to take a shower.<p>

Example, Hidan. Or Pein.

She wandered down the hall in search of something, anything to wear. A door to her right opened, revealing just the person she _really _didn't want to see. Hidan.

They stared at each other for a moment, but the Jashinist's eyes soon wandered lower.

"My face is up here, bastard," said Fallyn hurriedly, desperately trying to keep his eyes on her grimy face instead of her body.

He smirked. "Well well, who the _fuck _do we have here? The girl and the Ryuubi. Did someone else already piss you off, E.T.?"

"E.T.?"

He sighed. "Eleven Tails," he said.

"Oh. And right now I'm not all Eleven Tails-ish, I'm normal."

He rolled his eyes, and started walking down the hall, grumbling, "Yeah, right."

She sighed and continued on her quest. Now her adventure included clothing and now food.

She got herself lost in the passages, and ended up standing in front of a larger-than-the-other-doors door. Hesitantly, she pushed on the handle, and the hinges creaked as it opened. She stepped tentatively into the dark room, and searched for a switch.

It clicked on, lighting the room with a low, dull yellow glow. There was two cushioned chairs, a large wooden desk laden with papers, and shelves on either side of the room filled with random things.

Stepping over behind the desk, she skimmed the papers that were not-so-neatly piled in stacks all over the desk. It all had to do with something from Amegakure to "Lord Pein". Great. She was in Pein's office.

Looking around, she found a small note lying on the floor. Bending down, she picked it up and sat on the large leather chair behind the desk to read it. In a hasty scrawl it read "_Gone to get the girl. Orochimaru. Be back, don't do anything stupid, I WILL find out. –Pein"_

"That idiot!"

* * *

><p>Zetsu was wriggling through the earth as fast as plant-manly possible. It was only a matter of time before he was under Orochimaru's lair, and he just had to listen for sounds of fighting.<p>

His thoughts were cut short when he fell from the ground into a crater. He quickly regained his balance, and looked around.

Broken glass and tables littered the surrounding area, and there were many craters spread out on both the floor and the walls (courtesy of Almighty Push). He crawled back to the top of the crater, and it was there he saw the Deva path plunging the last of six chakra rods into the snake Sannin's head, destroying the last of the man's vital areas.

He looked over at Zetsu when he was finished, and looked at him expectantly. "Yes?" he said, a twinge of annoyance in his voice, "What do you want?"

"She's back at the base, Leader-sama," he said quickly, "**Madara and the others brought her back.**"

He paused, and visibly twitched. "And _why _did you not tell me before I left?" he said, sounding strained.

"You left right before I entered your office, Leader-sama. But you need to come back, we don't know what to do with her."

He sighed, and took off, Zetsu close behind.

* * *

><p>Fallyn was sitting in the hallway, right in front of Pein's office, waitinghoping that he would come back uninjured/not dead.

She had been waiting for three hours, but she knew that she would probably have to wait longer.

She was wrong.

Footsteps echoed down the hall, and an angry voice seemed to be scolding someone.

"Where is she, you idiot?" said a deep male voice. Pein still didn't seem to want to forgive Zetsu _just_ yet.

Fallyn was immediately standing, and walking hurriedly down the hall, where she nearly ran into the angry man. They stared at each other for a moment, but Fallyn, being the awkward person she was, closed the distance and started to poke his face and arms, checking for broken bones or anything. She was surprised to see that he was just dirty and his cloak was slightly torn on his sleeves.

He stared at her, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "What are you doing?" he asked hesitantly, looking at Zetsu for support. The plant man was gone. Great help he was.

"You're… not injured…or dead…" she said. You would expect a little bit of scrapes and broken bones when fighting a pedophile-snake-ninja-man who can regurgitate new bodies.

"No…" he said, still staring at her, "And neither are you."

They stared at each other for a moment, and Fallyn burst out in laughter. "No, I guess I'm not," she said, grinning widely.

Then the hall was silent again for a couple moments. Pein broke it.

"Um, could you possibly need some new clothes?"

* * *

><p><strong>Ending Notes:<strong>

**That was eleven pages. ELEVEN FREAKING PAGES. God. This was the transition from filler-thing to plot, so the plot will begin in the next chapter! WOOT!**

**Itachi fanservice XD Hahaha, I felt the need, even if I don't like him very much.**

**Jhrsljivhskjvhsljf that sucked.**


	10. Tragic Past and Corpses

**Author's Notes:**

**BAM! Plot.**

**Disclaimer- Don't own Naruto. Am currently making ten thousand chocolate chip cookies to bribe Masashi Kishimoto into giving it to me.**

* * *

><p>Fallyn stared into the mirror, waiting for the shower water to heat up. She still looked terrible, and now blisters and burns had been added to the list. Also, her shoulder length hair had been singed until it was at her ears.<p>

Sighing, she took some scissors she had stolen from Pein's desk and held one lock in her fingers, snipping it off until she reached healthy hair again. It took five minutes for all the burned hair to be removed, and left her head looking like a stringy black bird's nest.

Steam fogged the mirror, so she began to strip down. The first step into the shower was pure heaven, and she gasped in delight. Warm water left tracks in the filth on her skin, and she hastily started scrubbing it off with soap. She washed her hair, and relished in the water covering her scalp. When she had finished, there was no speck of dirt left.

Wrapping her towel around her body, she took a small washcloth and dried her hair while picking up her "new" clothes.

Pein had given her one of his shirts and a pair of pants. Konan was out doing God knows what, and he hadn't dared enter her room, so Fallyn had been left with his.

And no undergarments.

Sighing, she removed her scissors for the second time, holding them delicately in her blistered fingers. She cut the largest strips she could from her T-shirt and pants, forming makeshift underwear and a "bra". She couldn't wait until Konan returned.

The clothing was huge, shirt reaching down almost to her knees and supposedly knee-length pants down to mid-shin. She felt… small. Thankfully, her Converse had still survived, and she wore those so she wouldn't have to go barefoot.

"I swear, Chuck Taylor is my new God," she mumbled to herself.

When the door to her bathroom opened, she watched as steam filtered out from behind her. She crossed the stoned floor and flopped down on the bed, immediately asleep.

* * *

><p>She was awoken roughly, the blanket she was sleeping on ripped out from under her. Hitting the floor with a thud, she lashed out and caught someone on the heel with her leg, causing whoever it was to topple down beside her.<p>

Smirking triumphantly, she looked over to see who she had taken down, and the smirk immediately faded. She was staring at a very disgruntled blonde, who was glaring daggers at her while trying to regain the breath his fall had knocked out of him.

"_Bitch_," hissed Deidara, and made a grab for her nonexistent hair. She rolled over, avoiding his extended hand, and stood up hastily.

"Oh, _crap_, sorry Deidara," she said, with no hint of sarcasm. She reached out her own arm, prepared to help him off the floor, but he brushed it aside as he stood on his own.

Staring at her indignantly, he said, "Leader-sama wants you in the main room. We're having a meeting." Then he turned and walked away.

Fallyn hurried after him, attempting to keep up with his wide pace. He didn't stop to wait, just continued forward, even if she wasn't following. What a jerk.

While racing after him, she attempted to comb her now-spiky hair out with her fingers, but to no avail. Finally she just gave up, wiped the sleep-grit out of her eyes, and focused entirely on keeping track of the blonde ninja before her.

After going through a ridiculous amount of empty caverns and drafty passages, Deidara finally led Fallyn into the largest cavern she had seen yet. The ceiling went unseen because the measly lighting wasn't strong enough to reach all corners of the room. Torches lined the walls, illuminating a large table not unlike the one back at Fallyn's "home". Almost every seat was filled with the Akatsuki members, who were staring expectantly at the entrance. What she guessed was Konan's seat was also empty. Deidara sat down at his designated area next to Tobi, leaving the only empty space at the head of the table across a long stretch from Pein.

She sat down cautiously, eyeing a knot in the wood of the table nervously. All eyes were still on her, and she stared harder at the abnormality in the wood, hoping to disappear. She hated being stared at.

Hidan was snickering at her clothes, and Tobi was screaming about short hair. Fallyn was visibly twitching by then, so Pein quieted them down by simply clearing his throat.

"Now we will begin," he said with authority, and Fallyn sighed quietly. She really wasn't in the mood.

"Could you tell us what happened?" he said, and Fallyn turned her sleepy eyes to stare at him.

"Well, first off, I fell from your little let's-choke-everybody-with-smoke-and-give-them-motion-sickness transportation jutsu-thing…" she proceeded to tell them a very detailed accounting of her experience.

The room was silent. Surprisingly enough, no one had interrupted her while she had retold her "adventure". The only reaction she got was the occasional snickers from the members more in touch with their emotions.

"Oddly enough," she continued to break the silence, "After that one time I changed the Eleven Tails didn't really speak to me or resurface or speak through me when I was angry and stuff. Actually, it hasn't spoken in a while."

Hidan stared at her oddly. "Whaddya mean, it didn't speak through you? It sounded like it did plenty of times," he said disbelievingly.

She opened her mouth to retort, but Pein responded before she could. "I believe," he said, "that we have actually made some progress. It seems like the Ryuubi's chakra and Fallyn's small amount of chakra have merged completely."

Fallyn glared at him at the "Fallyn's small amount of chakra" part even though she knew it was true.

"Oh, so that's why she's been half bitchy and half quiet and freaky lately? Great, another Zetsu." Hidan sighed and rolled his eyes mockingly, but let out a sharp cry as the plant man sitting across from him gave him a hard kick to the shin.

"**Take care not to insult me, or I'll be eating you. **I'm not sure Kakuzu-san's stitches can fix that…" said each half in turn. Fallyn fought the urge to snicker, lest she wanted to be killed in her sleep by the psycho Jashinist.

Pein sent a glare their way, and was pleased when they were immediately silent. He turned back to Fallyn, and was surprised to see her raising her hand. When the others noticed, it earned a few snickers from a select few members.

"Um… yes?" said the orange haired man hesitantly. His eyes were filled with question, and Fallyn rolled her eyes in response as she lowered her arm.

"I didn't fell like interrupting their lovely little chat, because you are all armed magician ninja." The room was silent as she said that, and she smirked before continuing. "But, I've been wondering, how the hell was this thing put inside me in the first place? I mean, I am not a native of this freaking _alternate dimension_, so…"

"…Magicians?" said Deidara, staring incredulously at the black haired girl. Several other members looked at her with the same expression.

Rolling her eyes, she replied with a simple "Don't ask."

"To answer your question," said Itachi, breaking the silence, "There were these two rogue shinobi from Suna who heard rumors about the demon, and they transported themselves to your dimension. They were married, and the woman was pregnant, so they sealed the demon in their child in hopes to control their village. But for some reason they were unable to come back, so they stayed and raised you."

While he was speaking, a shadow fell over the Jinchuuriki's face. Her eyes glazed over with distant memories, and she shuddered, frowning deeply. These actions were awarded by several odd stares from the men near her.

"Got a problem, freaky bitch?" said Hidan rudely, and was kicked by Zetsu, who's white side was looking worriedly at the darkly nostalgic girl. He wasn't worried about _her, _he was worried that if provoked at such a seemingly delicate state that she would go Eleven Tails on their sorry asses. It certainly looked like it was a possible outcome.

She snapped out of her disturbing reverie, and looked at everyone with large eyes. "No, of course not. Everything's fine. So, uh, got anything else to talk about?" she said hurriedly, mustering a small, evidently fake smile. The Akatsuki cast her suspicious looks, but slowly turned their heads to face their leader.

"Of course. Now, we have some business to take care of," said Pein after a moment of hesitation. "regarding your training as a ninja. How old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"Oh, great… Well, this should be interesting, teaching an-almost adult things that children learn at eight. Now, you will train with one member each week, and then switch for the next. Hopefully you'll learn quickly… For the time being, you'll earn your keep doing household chores."

Insert twitch here.

Almost every member smirked. Cleaning up after eight men in their "prime" would be hilarious.

"Excuse me?" Fallyn said with a strained and dangerous smile.

"You heard him," sneered Deidara, smirking evilly. She resisted the urge to pick up her chair and throw it at him.

"Dismissed." Pein stood, and watched his organization filter out of the cavern. Fallyn came up last, and was just about to step out when his arm blocked her path.

"Come and get your uniform and ring from my office," he said simply, and disappeared.

Fallyn rolled her eyes at the dramatic exit, but cursed silently when she realized that she didn't know where she was, let alone where Pein's office was.

"Damn leader," she mumbled to herself, and adjusted the large pants around her waist.

* * *

><p>In his office, Pein slightly smirked to himself. Fallyn was going to take a while, he was sure.<p>

But his smirk quickly dissipated into a frown as he reviewed the meeting. His mind kept going back to the facial expression she had when Itachi had answered her question. It was gnawing at his mind, and he had to know why she had looked like that. The cloak wasn't the only thing she was coming for.

* * *

><p>It took her two hours to find her way to any vaguely recognizable passage, and another half hour to locate the orange haired man's office again. She knocked hesitantly on the door, waiting for a response from the other side.<p>

"Enter," came the muffled reply from behind the thick door. Tentatively, she eased the latch and swung the door open.

Pein was sitting behind the oversized desk, writing on a scroll. All papers that had previously been covering the entire surface were gone, which only succeeded in making the desk look larger.

"Sit," he said without looking up from his work. Closing the door behind her, she made her way over to one of the chairs facing him. The latch clicked into place, sounding impossibly loud and daunting. Or maybe that was because she was extremely nervous.

Unfortunately, when he finally looked at her she had no more long bangs to hide behind. She inwardly sighed, missing her barrier.

Pointing over to a bundle on the side of the desk, he said calmly, "There's your cloak, ring, and hat. You don't have to wear it until you go on a mission, if you prefer." He returned to his scroll.

Fallyn nodded, and slowly reached over to the bundle. When it was safely in her lap, she stood to leave. His head whipped up, and he stared at her until she was seated again.

"I never dismissed you. You're not finished here anyway."

His tone softened a _miniscule _bit when he saw her deer-in-headlights eyes. "Sorry, Pein," she said quietly, eyes never blinking or looking away.

"It's fine. But I need to know what happened during the meeting."

She immediately paled, her eyes distant. "You have no need to know," she said in a whispery voice, like she was suppressing tears. Sure enough, when he looked close enough he saw her eyes glistening.

If there was one thing he did not know how to deal with, it was getting information out of a crying hormonal teenage female.

"You're right," he said, aware that he was treading on thin ice. Luckily, he had caught a glimpse of a few of Konan's romance movies and knew the very basics. Rule number one: Just agree.

She looked up at him curiously, and a small smirk formed on her face. "Please don't tell me you've watched any teen movies? That was a rule for fathers. Always agree. You pretending to be my dad?" By the end her face had cracked into a half-hearted smile. It widened when she saw Pein's shocked and slightly flustered expression.

"Um, well, uh…" he trailed off, focusing on something on the wall behind her.

Shoulders shaking with silent laughter, she grinned at his reaction. It was adorable, but she was admitting that to no one.

He looked at her and smiled weakly, eyes slightly apologetic. She shook her head, grin slowly fading into another weak smile.

"Okay, I'll tell you."

Pein looked at her slightly shocked, not expecting that she would actually talk about it. Hm. He didn't even know what he did.

"Those 'rogue ninja' from the Sand were my alcoholic parents. Being ninja might explain why they had so many easily concealable weapons."

The pierced man leaned forward a bit, interested. He watched, confused, as the girl lifted her shirt to show her stomach only, also revealing several long scars ranging from white to bright red. She stood and turned, lifting the back of her shirt higher to show another criss-crossing pattern of scars along her back. He noticed that in one section of her back there was a scar in the shape of the Sand insignia crossed out.

"They were always drunk. Come home from robbing people? Drunk. Out of the shower? Drunk. Wake up? I'm not even sure how it's possible, but they managed to be drunk when they got up in the morning. And I got blamed for everything that happened, whether it had anything to do with me or not. Water leak? Out comes the knives. I think you get the idea," she said emotionlessly, eyes distant as she thought about her past.

Unfortunately for him, Pein had no clue what to say in response to that. All he did was stare at her, watching her facial expressions for any hint of…_anything_. She wasn't going to cry again, but her face was completely unreadable. Then she spoke again.

"This went on until I was sixteen. I'm pretty sure, now that I think about it, that they were doing that to try and cut me into submission or something. Possibly to show that they had power over me. But the last time they did it, I blacked out. I wake up, and this guy is there telling me they're in jail. But if they were ninja they would have been able to escape, right?" she said, now just thinking aloud. Itachi's information was being put to good use. "I think so," she answered her own question, "So I'm guessing that the Eleven Tails finally got pissed off enough to care, and killed them. Don't feel any regret though. It's good to know that they finally got what they deserved. They probably would have died soon from liver failure anyway, what with the amount of alcohol they were constantly shoving down their throats."

This wasn't the first time he had heard a sob story like that, so he wasn't completely horrified. Which was good, because Fallyn wasn't expecting him to be.

Eventually she turned to look at him with curious eyes, judging for a reaction. Their eyes locked, and after a few moments she said quietly, "You tell no one of this, or I shall personally ensure that your life is hell."

He stared at her, surprised. Then he cracked a grin, and he shoulders shook with a slow, quiet laugh. She watched at him, then slowly cracked a smile herself.

"No, of course not," he said, and they locked eyes again. Fallyn was struck by the sudden realization that this was quite out of character for the supposedly emotionless and merciless Akatsuki leader. She grinned a little wider- she like this Pein too, even if it was a bit out of character.

"So… thanks. Glad somebody knows now. But let's not talk about it again, agreed?" she said, eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, agreed," he replied, nodding.

Content with how it all went, she stood, dusted herself off, and leaned over the desk to ruffle the man's spiky orange hair before exiting with a contented smile plaguing all features.

* * *

><p>Back in her room, Fallyn untied the package and removed the light brown paper. The telltale black Akatsuki cloak slid out and landed silently on her bed. Wrapped inside was the ring and her favorite- The straw hat with the bells. Grinning to herself, she shook the small metal ball, and giggled at the light tinkling sound.<p>

Gathering the silky black material in her hands, she unfolded her Akatsuki cloak and stared at it for a moment. Thankfully, it looked like it would fit perfectly, and she sighed in relief. Now she just had to wait for Konan.

Reviewing her knowledge of ring placement, she remembered reading that Orochimaru wore his ring on his left little finger. Hoping to Chuck Taylor that it would fit, she slipped it on. Relief washed over her as it lodged itself snugly between her knuckle and the joint.

Looking back over at the craps of packaging on her bed, her eyes fell on the string that had tied the parcel together.

Gathering it in her hand, she retrieved the scissors from her bathroom and snipped it into four pieces, then used it to tie the sleeves of her shirt to an appropriate level, and the same with her pant legs.

She exited her room, and walked down the hall to a small closet where Itachi had told her the cleaning supplies were. Opening the small, thin door, she was disappointed to see that the extent of her tools was limited to a broom, a mop, several rags, and soap. She rolled her eyes, and gathered her supplies.

Turning down the hall, she decided that she would look for a kitchen, if there was one, and clean that first since that was going to be her main work area.

Cooking for eight grown men. Gah.

After wandering for about fifteen minutes, she finally came upon what could be _possibly_ considered the most pitiful excuse for a kitchen she had ever seen. The sink was covered in filth and dust, the counter layered with grime and boxes of long expired food. The fridge was small and filled with the stench of rotted fruits and meats. The floor was caked with muddy footprints and gobs of blood. The utensils were all covered in crusty food or coated in red.

She could only guess whose blood it was. It possibly belonged to an incredibly pissy immortal, but maybe she was just assuming.

She didn't even see a stove anywhere. She hoped that it was not under the large unidentifiable lump that had a distinct human shape.

This was going to suck.

* * *

><p>Kisame walked into the kitchen, hoping to god that Kakuzu had been bullied into getting some food. He stood outside the door and closed his eyes, slowly turning the handle. When he looked at the room, he was met by a sight much more surprising than food.<p>

The entire kitchen had been scrubbed until spotless. Several trash bags filled with expired goods prevented him from fully opening the door.

Fallyn was standing where the stove was, attempting to haul one of Hidan's old sacrifices that Zetsu had been "ripening" off of the counter. Apparently it had been left a little too long, because as she tried to pull it off the stovetop by its arm it fell off easily.

He laughed, and shoved at the door, gaining access to the spotless room. She whiled around and _tackled_ the man, shoving him back out of the room.

Surprised, amused, and slightly pissed off, Kisame looked down at the girl on his chest and smirked slightly, but found that she was gone. He raised himself onto his elbows and looked to see her removing his muddy ninja shoes.

"You asshole, don't even _think_ about going into my _absolutely spotless_ kitchen with your fucking _grimy_ feet," she growled, arranging the shoes neatly beside the door and glaring at the shark-like man. He gaped at her, stood, and brushed himself off with as much dignity as she could muster after being tackled by a skinny little girl.

Walking back into the room with a new vengeance, she grabbed the rotting corpse fearlessly and yanked it viciously off the stove, tossing it in a large trash bag. Dragging it down the hallway, she went back to the hallway where everyone's rooms were and shoved Hidan's door open.

Hidan, who had been performing a ritual near the doorway, was genuinely surprised-and extremely pissed off- when the door was slammed into his face and a heavy, unbearably putrid thing was shoved onto him, moving the metal spike painfully to the side. He groaned, and his eyes rolled to the back of his head for a moment before snapping back to glare at whatever was on top of him.

He yelled a bit when he found himself face-to-face with the decomposing mouth of a long-dead female ninja that he had sacrificed a couple months ago. Jumping out from under the body, he quickly wrenched the metal spike from his abdomen and plunged it into the head of the woman's corpse.

"Dammit, fucking zombies! What the hell did I do to piss Jashin-sama off?" he yelled, removing the spike and stabbing the body again. Fallyn watched in morbid fascination as he continued repeating the action until he had managed to sever the rotting tendons and meat, successfully decapitating the "zombie".

Only after he had wiped his spike of the woman's flesh did he turn to look at the doorway. Fallyn snapped out of her daze and hissed "No more bodies in my kitchen, bastard" before dashing down the hallway. Just in time, too; the long metal spike impaled itself in the door opposite Hidan's, right where her head had been. That room happened to belong to Kakuzu, so she heard the sounds of a fight between the immortals as she made her way down the corridor to the kitchen to begin her next task.

Making dinner.

* * *

><p><strong>Ending Notes:<strong>

**Shit, I am sooooo sorry for being the professional procrastinator that I am and ignoring this story for a few days. That was most definitely not cool to all you readers. As my excuse, I was reading some of the stories my dear reviewers wrote. So if you want me to read you stories, REVIEW. I read your profiles and your stories.**

**I have a list of things that I need to talk about in this author's note. Usually my author's notes are really short, but that's because I'll think of something to put in in the middle of the chapter and by the end I always forget. But this time was different- there was a pencil and a pad of Post-its on the computer table so I was actually prepared.**

**1. I added the "merging chakra" part because my OC's personality changed. I originally intended for her to be quiet and disturbing, but I can't write like that for long. That, and it would make it seem like she was always remembering her abuse and then she would be emo and this wouldn't be as slightly amusing as it is…**

**2. Remember when I said "BAM! Plot." earlier? I really didn't even know if I was going to begin to apply the plot in this chapter. But I did! I found an opening to insert her story! HA!**

**3. I was watching a marathon of Bully Beatdown during the time I was writing this. Mayhem might be the most wonderful person alive. I want to marry that man. Rant rant rant… I can fangirl all I wan, bitches! REVIEW IF YOU LOVE BULLY BEATDOWN!**

**4. Haha, Chuck Taylor is a God now. I feel like I've done the world a good deed by making it evident.**

**5. If you didn't like this chapter because of the morbid scenes, sucks for you. I enjoyed it.**

**6. I had such a good time writing this chapter. FIRST OFFICIAL PAIRING SCENE! WOOT! That, and the kitchen. That is exactly what I have always imagined the kitchen of the telltale group of S-ranked criminal ninja would look like. I mean seriously, eight grown men? Do you really think that it would be clean?**

**7. ZOMBIEEZZZZZZZZ! Haha, Hidan got corpse-raped.**

**8. Oh, and I'm kinda going through an identity crisis and that's why my pen name keeps changing.**

**That took almost a full page. Damn.**


	11. Vessel

**Author's Notes:**

**Been watching excessive amounts of Kaichou wa Maid-sama! and I now feel like a squealing teenage girl. Not kidding, in all the fluff scenes I was screaming and yelling at the screen when some idiot character interrupted a kiss scene. Mental disorder? I agree, too!**

**And to answer deeb0123456789's comment from three chapters ago (sorry) Kisame does know about Madara. Look it up on Narutopedia or Narutowiki. This takes place after Sasori dies, but remember, I'm rewriting it to match how I think Naruto should turn out, so things will be different.**

**I LOVE MY REVIEWERS! SOO MUCH! I ADMIRE YOU ALL!**

**If you are reading this… DON'T JUST ADD IT TO A LIST! ADD IT TO A LIST AND **_**REVIEW!**_ **Haha, I got to use all three button things… Italics, underline, and bold. I happy… for the next three seconds… Yep, it's gone now. Bleh.**

**ENTER PLOT! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, why the hell would I still be here, writing about it?**

* * *

><p>After another shower, Fallyn flopped down onto her bed, deflated to the fullest extent of the word. After <em>re-cleaning <em>the kitchen (a few ninja-idiots decided to stomp all over the floor with their damn dirty shoes… No one left unscathed), she had exhausted every persuasive ability from bullying to hands-and-knees pleading in order to get Kakuzu to be some groceries. The damn cheap bastard only let her buy enough for one meal. She'd have to steal his wallet later.

Dinner had been impossibly hard- nine servings of leek soup. Peeling fifteen potatoes was definitely not enjoyable. And she had to wash all the dishes.

Tomorrow was Day 2 of cleaning the entire base. When she was finished she would be able to train. She doubted that that would be any easier.

Ever so slowly, she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

><p>Itachi was stuck in Pein's office. He really hated it there; it was always so dimly lit, and it smelled like wood polish and old paper.<p>

"What is it that you needed, Leader-sama?" he asked, trying to finish this meeting as soon as possible so he could go to sleep.

Pein stared at him, noting the man's discomfort. Screw him, he was going to drag the meeting out longer now.

"I would like you to read this. Zetsu went into the Sand village's library vaults and found this scroll." He reached into a drawer and produced a simple scroll decorated in swirling patterns of black lacquer. Handing it to Itachi, he watched as the other man unrolled and scanned over its contents at superhuman speed.

Its contents shocked the red-eyed man, and he looked up at Pein with question in those deadly eyes. The pierced man noted the Mangekyou and started forming a new plan in his head based on that and the contents of the scroll.

There would be no way he _wouldn't_ succeed with those two weapons.

His plotting was interrupted by the sound of Itachi's voice.

"Is this true, Leader-sama?" All traces of discomfort had disappeared from his voice, and the smell of Pein's office was no longer as sharp in his nose. This matter was too important.

The orange haired man looked at Itachi with all seriousness. "Yes. It's true. Now, I am sure you already are aware of this chance, but let us plan…"

* * *

><p>Fallyn woke up on thee floor. She did not remember any falling, but maybe that was because she was so exhausted.<p>

Unfortunately, the ache in her shoulder and back from sleeping in an awkward position made her wish she had woken up, no matter _how_ tired she had been.

Rolling over, she slowly eased herself into a sitting position and sighed in ecstasy as her spine cracked. Massaging her neck and cracking that, too, she finally felt that she had just enough energy to stand.

In the mirror, she finally took time to appraise her hair. It was spiky, but it looked… interesting. In a good way. It was nice to know that she would no longer have to put a lot of effort into her head.

Sighing, she entered the bathroom and did necessary morning duties before slipping on her beloved Converse (which, in her new religion worshiping Chuck Taylor, were what a rosary or crucifix was to other religions) and entering the silent hall.

Some of the other members' doors were cracked open slightly, which was the signal we had all come up with last night that specifically meant "All objects that I would never ever _ever_ want you to see have now been carefully hidden in a place you will never look so you are free to clean it because I am too much of a lazy ass to do it myself." Granted, the last part she had added on herself, but it went without saying that they knew it anyway.

She hoped that Kakuzu didn't hide his money too well. But that was like asking an owl to jog at noon***.**

Creeping to the kitchen, she retrieved her cleaning supplies and stared loathingly at the empty cabinets. Her stomach groaned to show its protest, but she quelled her hunger and returned to the Room Hall(nickname), she stared challengingly at the cracked doors.

Switch to Demon Maid mode.

Nothing was safe from her wrath.

* * *

><p>Deidara experienced the breath-taking feeling of stepping into his bedroom when Fallyn had just finished cleaning. By now she had completed every room whose entrance had been granted to her, and the sounds of surprise could be heard as the other members assessed their rooms.<p>

"Holy shit… You can see the floor," he said, voice muted by pure amazement. Staring wide-eyed at his living quarters, he could hardly believe that this was _his_.

Fallyn watched triumphantly as the blonde ninja walked around his room, cobalt eyes wide, taking in every inch.

"Where are all my cloth-" he began, but she cut him off with a smug smirk.

"Washed," came the short, proud reply. She called out other such answers as similar questions were heard from the hallway.

She exited the hall, answering questions about the exact locations of certain objects as she left. She couldn't help but feel extremely accomplished now that her first challenge had been completed.

She had put on some muscle in the short amount of time she had been doing this, too; hauling around many corpses (courtesy of Hidan), large amounts of explosive clay that could detonate at any moment (courtesy of Deidara), and many other horrors. She was no longer skin and bones- she was _lean. _She nearly, _nearly _did a victory dance when she thought that.

Shaking similar thoughts out of her mind, she started down the hall.

Now she had to go bug Pein about money for food.

* * *

><p>Itachi had stayed in Pein's office all night, going through it all over and over again. When he was finally released from the man's presence, it was all he could do to keep himself from either collapsing on the spot or dashing to his room. Surprisingly, he managed to stay composed.<p>

He was an Uchiha, after all.

He pulled on the door at the same time somebody pushed it, and narrowly dodged a head-on collision with none other than the one they had just been discussing; the Jinchuuriki.

She gasped and nearly tripped when the door was wrenched out of her grasp, but caught herself just before she went face-first into the stone floor. Good thing, too; it was not very dignified to fall on your face in front of the leader of a criminal organization and a high-class ninja with Cheater Eyes.

Itachi ignored her completely and continued down the hall to his already immaculate room, leaving her watching, bewildered, as he left.

Shaking her head, she turned around to face Pein, who was staring at her curiously.

"I have a favor to ask," she said calmly, crossing her fingers discreetly that he would give his consent. "Can you go bully Kakuzu into actually buying enough food to last more than one meal?"

Pein, resisting the urge to snicker at the 'bully Kakuzu into buying something' part, smirked slightly and said, "Maybe. Have you finished cleaning their rooms?"

As she nodded, he couldn't help but gape _slightly._ He would check later.

Looking up at him with large, pleading eyes, Fallyn was nearly on her knees begging. She really wanted to breathe air that was not musty or earthy, because it felt like she was inhaling soup. Air soup did not taste good.

Sighing, he muttered, "Fine. Show me where he is."

She clapped her hands together and grinned before prancing out of the room and down the hall.

Shaking his head, he slowly followed after, not believing that this girl was the one that all his plans depended on.

* * *

><p>"No."<p>

"Kakuzu…"

"_No._"

"Kakuzu."

"Never."

"_Kakuzu._"

"Why the hell should I?" said the exasperated masked man, who, in Fallyn's opinion, was having a fit worthy of a five year old.

"Because people need to _eat_," hissed Pein, who was not pleased to have one of his subordinates question him.

Grumbling, the odd-eyed man slumped his shoulders on defeat and sent a glare worthy of Itachi towards Fallyn.

Who knew such mood swings were possible in a man like Kakuzu.

"Fine," he said, but before Pein could say anything, he said, "But there's a limit to one hundred ryo."

The orange haired leader could only gape slightly and look at Kakuzu with a bewildered stare and furrowed eyebrows. Fallyn was pinching the bridge of her nose and shaking her head.

"Just… sad. Sad. An S-ranked criminal, reduced to a five year old's antics. That was just… pitiful. No," said the girl, not even looking at him. He was about to launch himself at her when Pein's voice stopped him.

"She's right. You have more than enough money to spare some for food. May I remind you that that money belongs to the Akatsuki?" he said calmly, though he was staring poison-dipped daggers at the other man.

"Whatever," Kakuzu mumbled under his breath, and looked over harshly at Fallyn, cocking his head in the direction of a large corridor, indicating for her to follow. She obliged cautiously, wary of the temperamental man.

Pein watched them leave, and hoped that she wouldn't piss the murderous man off and end up dead.

* * *

><p>Fallyn ran in front of Kakuzu and spun around, arms wide. They were standing in a large, grassy field, and the sun was directly overhead. Soft breezes sent ripples and waves through the grass, and made Fallyn's silky Akatsuki cloak whipping around her. She hadn't bothered to button it up, and it flowed around her like a soft fabric stream. They were surprisingly comfy.<p>

"Baka girl, act your age and walk like a normal person!" hissed Kakuzu, glaring at her. She faced him, arms still spread-eagled and grinned playfully.

"Nah, don't feel like it," she said in a bubbly voice, and started to run through the grass again, vaguely resembling a large black bird.

_Or a dragon,_ thought Kakuzu, and smirked a bit at the irony.

His musings where interrupted by a happy scream, which could be deciphered as "FRESH AIIIIR!" followed by a ridiculous amount of childish laughter, and he was surprised to feel the corners of his mouth turn up slightly, stretching the stitches on his mouth. It was soon gone, replaced by an inward and outward glare at his body for betraying him.

He had not smiled for years.

"Alright," said Fallyn in a businesslike tone, clapping her hands and rubbing them together, causing Kakuzu to roll his eyes. Ignoring him, she continued, "I promise I'll go easy on the food."

He doubted that.

* * *

><p>It took less than an hour to gather an appropriate amount of vegetables, fruits, breads, rice, etc. They scraped by with the bare minimum of things they needed to last for a week.<p>

Fallyn didn't know if she was going to enjoy these future shopping trips with Kakuzu or not.

Surprisingly, he wasn't as terrible as she would have expected about purchasing goods. He would occasionally scold her for not haggling lower prices for certain items, but other than that he just stood by and paid for the things she had chosen. Very passively. She felt like he was judging every thing she bought and making a mental note. She felt like a criminal.

On their way out of the market in the nearby village they passed several stalls for different sweets, and Fallyn couldn't help but look at the colorful sugary things, causing Kakuzu to roll his eyes for what was definitely not the first and definitely not the last time. HE sighed in relief once the exit was in sight, but right as he was about to make a break for it with the bags his arm was grabbed and pulled in front of a mochi stall.

"What the hell, baka girl! What do you want?" he said angrily, yanking his arm away from her small-handed grip.

Ignoring his temper tantrum, Fallyn looked up at him, an immense smile on her face, hands waving erratically, and said in a giggly voice, "Look look look! Aren't they adorable? I've never had mochi before!"

At closer inspection of the colorful blobs, he recognized the vague, round shapes of small Zodiac animals in serious chibi form. Sighing heavily, he looked at the girl with an exceedingly irritated and questioning look.

She stared at him, and they locked gazes for a couple moments before the amber-eyed girl poked the tall man in the forehead.

… Yes, poked him in the forehead.

His irritated look immediately dissolved into one of pure shock. With wide green-red eyes he gaped at the girl, and she grinned mischievously. "C'mon, Kazu-san, let's get some mochi for everyone. You can spare a couple ryo, can't you?" she said, her tone obviously showing the effort of restraining her laughter.

The S-ranked criminal whose forehead had just been violated continued to gape.

"What, are you worried that they're going to make fun of you for doing something nice?" she said, still grinning, and shook her head. "I'll tell them I took money from your pocket. That okay?"

Kakuzu finally regained the use of his voice, and said, "What the hell, girl?"

Laughing outright, she said with a glint in her eye, "Aw, is the little S-ranked criminal sad because someone poked him in the forehead? Really, it wasn't that big of a deal. So let's buy some mochi!" And she turned to face the bewildered shopkeeper who had been forced to endure the whole odd conversation.

Shaking his head, Kakuzu removed his wallet with evident reluctance.

* * *

><p>"When will we tell her?" asked Itachi in his monotonous voice, staring expectantly at Pein.<p>

They were meeting in one of the unfurnished caverns, desperately trying to avoid Madara. The orange headed leader knew when he was near, and they had been forced to move locations for the safety of their plans.

Pein contemplated for a moment, then decided and said, "Tonight or tomorrow. The earlier she knows where her loyalties lie the faster we can get her away from Madara's influence."

Nodding his agreement, Itachi bowed slightly and turned to leave.

* * *

><p>"We're baaack!" called Fallyn, and giggled when it echoed. She hoped she had woken someone up.<p>

She did.

"Bitch," came Hidan's raspy sleep-voice from down one corridor, "No one gives a shit."

She laughed, and took the bags that Kakuzu had been carrying to the kitchen. The masked man shook his head and walked down the hall to his bedroom, exhausted.

In the still immaculate kitchen, Fallyn was unpacking groceries. She was nearly finished when she felt another presence enter the room.

Turning to face this unknown figure, she found herself inches away from a swirly orange mask.

"Hello Fallyn-chan!" screamed the man-child, nearly shattering the girl's eardrums.

One hand covering her abused appendage, she replied with a strained smile, "Hi, Tobi. What's up?"

"Silly Fallyn-chan! The ceiling is up!" he replied, pointing.

Stepping sideways, out of his direct contact, Fallyn robotically continued putting groceries away. "That's not what I meant, Tobi. But anyways, look what I got for you!" she said in a fake happy voice as she produced a bag of sweets.

Squealing, the lollipop-faced man launched himself at her, and she narrowly dodged the oncoming assault of one hundred and twenty three pounds of man-flesh. Landing with a thud on the floor, Fallyn thought she had escaped it.

Oh, how tragic it is that she forgot she was dealing with ninjas now.

He was standing again in less than an instant, twisting to face her. Something sinister was emanating from his person and she couldn't help but curse softly at her mistake.

Here comes Madara.

"Why, hello there, Jinchuuriki," came the voice from behind the mask, though it had deepened considerably to a low baritone. It sent an unpleasant shiver down her spine.

"Dammit, I have a name. I have a name and you know it. Why the hell won't you use it?" she said as defiantly as she could, though it quivered slightly.

Smirking behind his obnoxious mask, Madara hissed, "Fine, Fallyn-_chan._"

That was even worse. Her body was wracked with shivers, and she shook her head.

"Never mind. What the hell do you want?" she said, and now the quake in her voice was evident. It only made the other man's smirk widen.

"I want to tell you something important." Watching her face for a reaction, he was pleased to see that her eyes were fearful and wary, and he noted the movement as she backed up a small step.

With a little added volume and drama, he said, "Some certain people have been keeping the secret of your purpose here." Something else was now hinting in her eyes; curiosity.

_Gotcha,_ he thought, and his red eyes glinted.

"Who's keeping it a secret?" she asked cautiously, her eyes never leaving the hole in his mask. Which, by doing that, could possibly be her downfall. Damn Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan.

"Why, who else but Pein? And Itachi, of course. They don't want you to know what they plan to do, or you'll try and escape."

Now she was extremely curious. She needed to know anything that could be that important, even if it was coming from this deceptive old bastard.

"Tell me," she said in a false commanding tone, though she was still being wary of everything she said, in case it would tip him off.

Turning his back to her, he held up his hands and shrugged. "Oh, I don't think it's _really _necessary for you to know," he said in a taunting tone, and the smirk on his voice was obvious in his voice.

"God, stop with your sadistic screwing around. It's annoying." She glared at him, fully aware of his body language.

Slightly annoyed.

Shit.

"I can do whatever I want, girl," he hissed dangerously, whirling around to face her, Sharingan glinting. And for a moment, Fallyn was almost as scared of him as she was of her parents. Which, really, was how it was supposed to be.

Turning back around as if nothing had happened, Uchiha Madara said, "You're the new vessel. They'll seal the tailed beasts inside you. And once they achieve their plans-" he stopped suddenly. She looked up at him, encouraging him to continue, only to find that he had disappeared. Sighing, she lowered her guard for a moment, thinking that he had finished with a cliffhanger.

Oh, was she wrong.

Leaning back, she intended to hit the wall.

Walls aren't supposed to be warm and muscular.

Heavy but thin arms encircled her, and she felt the older man's breath tickle her ear. Instinctively tensing, she winced and shivered as he whispered into her ear, "They'll kill you."

Then he was gone, and Fallyn slumped to the floor, the man's body warmth singing her skin.

* * *

><p>After dinner, everyone was sitting around the table and playing cards. Fallyn discovered a hidden talent; she was really good at all card games. Luck or skill, it was rare that she lost, and she had earned enough ryo to last her for a while.<p>

After her eleventh win, Hidan slammed his cards down onto the table and said, "I'm tired of losing to this bitch. I have no fucking money left." He stood to leave, but was pulled back into his seat by his partner.

"What the fuck do you want, Kakuzu?" he said impatiently, glaring at the man.

"She has a surprise, and I'm not letting anyone leave until it is all gone because I spent a lot of money on it." He stared pointedly at Fallyn, who grinned and disappeared into the kitchen, leaving several curious members alone.

When she returned, she did not only have the box of mochi but Konan as well.

"Look what I found!" she stated proudly, and Konan, confused, gave everyone a little wave. The blue haired woman turned to face the one next to her and said, "Oh, and I brought some clothing that might suit you better than Pein's." Gesturing towards Fallyn's ridiculous ensemble, she raised her eyebrows slightly. The other girl blushed a tiny bit and looked down, embarrassed.

"Thanks," she mumbled, and Konan nodded. She took her seat.

"Okay then," said Fallyn, and passed around clean plates and chopsticks. She slid the box onto the table and opened it for all to see.

"…Mochi?" said Deidara, "Wow, I haven't had that in ages, un."

"Ooooh, they're so cute!" squealed Tobi, making Fallyn wince as she was reminded of the earlier event.

Everyone took one of the colorful treats, and Fallyn couldn't help but smile as she watched nine S-ranked criminals (yes, Zetsu was eating it as well) eat a sugary dessert in the shape of adorable little animals.

They all spent a while eating the treat, laughing and transferring good natured insults, basically being twenty year old men and women. Which seemed weird, because these were the heartless serial killers that didn't seem to have any normal emotions.

_Well, I guess they _are _human,_ she thought, nodding sagely to herself.

Fallyn could admit, it was really nice.

* * *

><p>"Have you gotten all of the locations?" said Pein from behind his monsterous desk. He was staring thoughtfully at the blue haired woman before him.<p>

"Every one except for the Eight Tails, Pein," replied Konan cooly.

"Good. Then after she's been halfway trained, we can begin."

"Halfway trained?" asked Konan, confused.

"Yes, halfway. One learns faster when their life depends on it, no?" he said, smirking slightly.

"Oh, so now you're fine if she dies in a battle."

"No, we'll save her. At the last moment, of course, just in case."

Rolling her golden eyes, Konan replied, "Of course. Alright, I'll take my leave now."

She turned and left.

* * *

><p>"Okay, so here's a shirt, and some pants, understuffs, gloves, shoes," said Konan, plopping the items on the bed as she listed them.<p>

Fallyn knew the basics of these ninja's clothing expectancies. Easy to move around in. Only one pair of clothing, two at most. You were lucky if it was anything fancy or pretty.

Fallyn was lucky, in her opinion. There was a tank top not unlike the ones ANBU members wore, and the pants were just the normal shin-length cloth. The gloves were black and fingerless, with metal plates carved with the Akatsuki cloud on the back. The underwear was… underwear.

She slipped into the bathroom with the garments, and it only took her a few moments to change into the simple clothes. When she emerged, Konan nodded approvingly.

"Just one thing is missing," she stated thoughtfully, and she turned around to grab Fallyn's Akatsuki cloak off of the hook it was hanging from. Handing it to the other girl, she watched carefully as she slid it on.

"No no no. Better idea," she said, and fastened two of the buttons at her waist. Sliding the sleeves off her shoulders, she let it hang, folded in half, around the girl's waist.

"Perfect," she said, nodded her head.

Fallyn thanked the blue haired woman and watched as she left. Then she turned into the bathroom to look in the mirror.

She was pleased, not because she thought it looked good, but because she felt like an Akatsuki member now. A ninja. Someone who belonged to the Naruto world.

When she returned to the larger portion of her room, she was surprised to see that she was no longer alone. Standing in the center of the room was Uchiha Itachi.

Fallyn was surprised for a moment, but it quickly passed and she said in an unfazed voice, "Looks like someone has never learned how to knock."

The red eyed man ignored her comment, and stared at her calmly.

Uncomfortable under his scrutinous gaze, she fidgeted and shifted from foot to foot nervously. "Um, can I help you?"

His eyes finally seemed to come into focus, and he stared at her with a slightly disapproving look. Well, at least that's what it looked like, but it seemed that that was one of his default expressions.

"Do you know why you're here?" he said suddenly, piercing gaze making her waver slightly.

"Um… not really… Because I'm the Eleven Tails Jinchuuriki, right?" she said, Madara's warning flashing through her mind. She didn't know which one she had to look out for more, Itachi and Pein or Madara. Madara was a pretty daunting person, but Itachi with his new eyes _and _Pein…

"But do you know they _reason_?" he said patiently, as if addressing a child.

Slightly annoyed, Fallyn responded in the same tone, "No, because I was kidnapped and usually ones who are kidnapped don't know the proper reason for their abduction. But I can guess; to assist you in collecting the other biju?"

He snorted, and said, "Well, I would imagine that with the feeble information you have been provided with wouldn't really inspire any logical guess, so I give you some credit."

Fallyn couldn't help but be reminded of her conversation with Madara. Where was the normal emotionless You-are-not-worthy-of-my-words Uchiha Itachi?

He continued, not waiting for any kind or response, "You do hold an extremely powerful demon, yes, but you are also a vessel."

"A…vessel?" said Fallyn, aware that Madara had used a similar word.

_Dear God, he wasn't making it up._

"We can seal all of the Tailed Beasts inside of you, and the Eleven Tails should be able to sustain the power of the Ten Tails. It will be much easier to control it," he said, gesturing with his hands. His mouth started to twitch up in a slightly deranged grin.

Fallyn was freaked out, but she managed to sputter, "And what will happen when you've achieved your goal?"

Shrugging, he replied nonchalantly, "That's not up to me," then grinned, a large, mentally unstable grin.

And then Fallyn was gasping on the floor, having been freed from the genjutsu.

"How unfortunate that your extreme amount of chakra makes it difficult to keep you under even the Eternal Mangekyou's genjutsu," said an emotionless monotone voice, and she listened as his quiet footsteps crossed the room and calmly shut the door., leaving her with only one thought running through her mind;

_Who's telling the truth?_

* * *

><p><strong>Ending Notes:<strong>

***I give all credit to the hilarious genius Demetri Martin for the analogy.**

**AAAAAH! DOOOONE! I'm so sorry guys, I am a terrible person for not sucking up my laziness and taking the time to write the PLOTTIEST (haha new word) CHAPTER EVER.**

**Oh, and I have two things to recommend to the dear readers who read the Author's Notes (which you should, there is a lot of interesting/important background info here). **

**1. The lovely, amazing, and talented singer Emilie Autumn. LOOK HER UP ON YOUTUBE, AND LISTEN TO ALL HER SONGS BECAUSE SOME ARE DIFFERENT THAN OTHERS. She is a Gothic singer whose songs can range from rape songs (God Help Me and Thank God I'm Pretty) to murder songs (Let the Record Show, Gothic Lolita [hilarious and disturbing song], 306, and others) to awkward (I Know Where You Sleep) to sad (Mad Girl, Ever, The Art of Suicide, and others) to hilarious (Marry Me and others) to just plain disturbing poetry (Miss Lucy Had Some Leeches and others). I really REALLY recommend her.**

**2. The book **_**The Everafter.**_** It's a really good book with an interesting new take on what happens after you die.**

**And just to let you guys know, I'm not doing a love triangle, so the Kakuzu moment was just supposed to be pointless cuteness and the Madara moment… well… That's just kinda how I imagine him. Sadistic sex-deprived old man. Yep.**


	12. Training

**Author's Notes:**

**Thank you all sooo much, my dearest reviewers and add-story/author-to-favorites-or-alerts-list-people. You make me smile. XDXDXD**

**yapook, this is an OCxPein. OF COURSE she's not gonna hate him. For a long time, at least. I gotta mix it up, y'know? Add in some romance twists and turns… can't just make it conflict-less… or something like that. Yep, don't bang your lovely little head on the desk, please.**

**Disclaimer. DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY PEOPLE I WOULD MURDER IN ORDER TO OWN **_**NARUTO**_**? (I wouldn't murder my dear readers, of course, you guys get to join me in the Naruto world.) Masashi Kishimoto owns it and it's unfair that he didn't have to fight for it.**

* * *

><p>Tomorrow was her first day of training.<p>

Sprawled on her bed, staring around her black room at the shapes the darkness was making, Fallyn had found herself unable to sleep after the day's events. Madara's warnings continued to echo in her ears, and the scene with Itachi continued playing over and over in her head.

Pein seemed to be almost bipolar. Nicer than expected when talking alone… about more personal problems… but he had immediately snapped back into uptight and boring leader-mode. She only saw him at meals, and he only attended to make sure the Akatsuki weren't being idiots.

Maybe she had read into his reactions when she told him about her parents too much? Maybe her stupid teenage brain inflated little meaningless reactions to something seemingly important. These thoughts only ran through her head because of the phrase Madara had oh-so-bluntly put, "_They'll kill you._"

She paused the stream of thoughts running through her brain, sat up, and whispered to herself, "What am I expecting? Why the hell do I think that serial killers would be like that? What do I expect from _Pein_? Why do I even _care_ about him?"

Turning around and slamming her face back into the pillow, she mumbled through the thick fabric, "Damn my overreacting brain."

In the morning, about three hours before Fallyn usually dragged herself out of bed, screamo music blared from her little music device, making her jolt awake and heavily fall to the floor.

Definitely not the best way to start the day.

Limb by limb she pulled herself off the floor, rubbing sleep grit out of her eyes and combing out the tangles in her hair. She lumbered sleepily over to the bathroom, and splashed some cold water on her face, attempting to wake herself up fully. That didn't work, so she stripped off her now wrinkled new clothing and slipped into a hot shower.

And promptly fell asleep against the tiled wall.

* * *

><p>Kisame awoke abruptly at seven o'clock, as he did every morning. He stood from his bed, and pulled the comforter and sheets above his pillow. Moving his tall, muscular bulk towards the bathroom, he rinsed his face and combed his hair to its appropriate black-blue angle. Pulling his Akatsuki cloak over his muscular exposed chest, he buttoned it as he left the room, locking the door behind him (in case of break-ins carried out by the more mischievous members).<p>

He rapped on Fallyn's door at the end of the hall, quiet enough as not to aggravate the close-by sleeping serial killers.

"Girl, it's time to go," he said quietly, continuing to knock annoyingly on the thin wood door.

When there was no answer, the blue man began knocking more insistently, getting increasingly louder with each assault on the poor wooden panel.

He stopped his bombardment and paused, straining to hear anything going on in the room. Sighing when he heard the sound of running water, he twisted the handle off of the locked door easily and stepped inside.

The room was fairly clean, with a few odd things scattered around the perimeter. He stepped over a small glowing rectangle and took a few moments to stare at it before continuing to the closed bathroom door.

He resumed his onslaught on the new door, and said a little louder than before, "Girl, it's time to start training."

He didn't get a response again.

Now slightly irritated, he said, "Are you ignoring me? It's time to go. _Now._"

When he heard no sounds of acknowledgement, he repeated his past action of snapping the door handle off and pushed the door open.

Fallyn awoke from her shower-nap when she heard an echoing _snap_ from the door. But it was when she heard the door open that she completely woke up. As the first couple of footsteps could be heard from the intruder, her hand shot out of the shower curtain like lightning and snatched the towel hanging on a hook directly next to her. Wrapping it around her body with her hands while shutting off the water with her feet, she peeked out of the side of the hanging cloth to catch a glimpse of the room/bathroom perpetrator.

Her eyes immediately met the broad chest covered by the silk material of an Akatsuki cloak. Upon further upward inspection, she found that the infiltrator happened to be her teacher for the next week.

"Um… _Hiii _Kisame…" she said, blushing furiously.

"You were ignoring me," he stated, annoyed, and seemingly oblivious to the fact that she was dripping wet and in a towel, for which she was extremely grateful.

Her blush deepened, and as she stepped back, she mumbled, "I…" her voice got softer, "fell asleep."

There was a moment of silence, and she crept back to the recesses of the dark shower, hiding her body and beet red face in the shadows.

From the other side of the barrier-curtain, Kisame said, "You… fell asleep… in the shower?" It was evident that he was still trying to process the situation, but the first traces of laughter were beginning to form.

Although seemingly impossible, Fallyn's face burned to a deeper tone to the point where it was nearly crimson. "Yeah… so?" she said with false bravado, and tugged he towel tighter around her body.

At that, the shark-man began to guffaw loudly, but not loudly enough to wake any members that weren't already up and about. Fallyn's embarrassment turned to rage, and she kicked at the man from behind the shield of the curtain.

Since he could not begin to see the kick aimed at him, his body was completely unprepared for the harsh blow. It struck him right in the solar plexus, knocking the breath straight out of him. He made a wild grab for her as a reaction, but she had pushed herself too far into the corner for him to even get close.

Once he had regained his breath (and his composure), his disembodied voice from the other side of the cloth said slightly breathlessly, "Well, at least you got strength and luck down already."

Rolling her eyes, Fallyn commanded the man out of the bathroom so she could change in peace. It was at that point that the slightly perverted man realized the situation, but with threats of another attempted kick (though he doubted she could get lucky a second time) and purposely burnt food, he begrudgingly left his new student to clothe herself.

* * *

><p>Konan watched as the large blue man and the Jinchuuriki began their classes. She was hidden in the shadows that the ceiling provided, sitting on a small ledge that she had seen Pein and Madara use on multiple occasions to watch the members train. Her mission was to observe Fallyn's progress and report it at the end of the day to Pein.<p>

She was amazed at the change in the girl that only she seemed to have noticed. She remembered the creepy, mentally unstable girl that she had seen the first day they had all met her, and couldn't believe the change that had happened while she had been gathering locations. The girl was often smiling and joking, and even though she still retained some of the odd behavior, it had turned from creepy to amusing.

This was the first time Konan had seen the Akatsuki be _good_ for someone.

This was the first time Konan had seen someone be good for the Akatsuki.

And then Pein had gone and blew it by scaring the crap out of the poor girl, and being slightly _out of practice with the female race after living with eight men,_ she didn't really know how to fix it.

Well, the time would come.

Turning her attention to the training grounds, she observed.

Restraining herself from snickering several times, she watched Fallyn deliver blows to Kisame's limbs. At random intervals short bursts of powerful chakra fueled the kicks and punches, and the rattling of Kisame's bones could be heard from the blue haired woman's vantage point. She watched as he continued to have to resort to Samehada's power to heal fractures and breaks.

After Fallyn nearly blew off the man's head, Kisame stopped her before she could deliver another bone-shattering kick. Konan leaned forward, straining to catch the next words.

* * *

><p>"Okay, okay, <em>stop<em>," said a thoroughly irritated Kisame, prepared to break the leg sending her next high kick. "What did you do, take taijutsu lessons from Might Gai or his annoying mini-me when you were in Konoha?" Pausing, she quickly lowered her upraised leg to the ground, and was surprised when a loud crash resounded around the room when her foot touched the floor. Upon further inspection, a crater had formed under her.

After losing her balance and falling, a disgruntled Fallyn said from the floor, "Whoa… what happened there?"

Rolling his eyes as he transferred more of Samehada's chakra into his own body, Kisame groaned, "Your Eleven Tails chakra happened there."

Realization dawned on the girl's now-paled features, and she said quickly, "Oh shit, did that happen to your arms… and legs… and body? Shit, you should have stopped me when I broke your first bone, idiot!"

As he felt his abused internal structure heal completely, the shark-man whipped his blue head around and glared jagged acid-dipped broadswords at the earth-bound (literally) girl. "That was most certainly _not _the most appropriate time to call me an idiot, girl," he hissed, baring his pointed teeth menacingly.

The small-child-killing-worthy glares were lost on the amber-eyed girl, who had rolled around and was standing up. Brushing dirt off of her ass, she airily replied, "Yeah, yeah, whatever. It's a good thing you have that godforsaken sword-creature or your ass would have been screwed."

Fuming, Kisame fought the urge to take his "godforsaken sword-creature" and shove it down that little girl's throat. He looked ready to carry out this action, when Fallyn turned around and flashed him a joking grin, mischief glinting playfully in her gold eyes. She poked him in the chest (since his face was too high for her to reach) and stuck out her tongue. "I was only kidding," she said, laughing good-naturedly. "God, don't get so riled up." She closed her eyes and began waving her finger side to side, nodding sagely, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips despite her attempt at a serious expression. "A quick temper is dangerous when dealing with women. Obviously, you don't seem to have enough experience to know that yet. Maybe it's because of the gills?"

She began laughing again and pranced a little ways away from him if he tried to kill her for her idiotic comments.

Kisame could only stare blankly, still attempting to process all of the information that had been brutally shoved into his brain in the expanse of one and a half minutes. Fallyn stared, still grinning, judging reactions and whether or not she would have to run for her life or just sit there.

The shark-man glared at the Jinchuuriki, looking ready to rip her tongue out of her mouth… slowly.

"I going to ignore everything you said until you talked about the gills," he said, boring holes into her face.

She cringed, but quickly turned that into an apologetic look. "Sorry," she said, rubbing the back of her head, "Kinda got carried away. I do that a lot. No offense."

Rolling his eyes, he chose to move on. "_Anyways,_ back to training. I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you have a fire type chakra nature, but Pein told me I had to check anyways." He produced an all-too-familiar slip of paper from his cloak pocket, the thin sheet waving like tissue paper. Extending his hand to Fallyn, he stared, confused, as she made no move to retrieve the paper from him.

"Something wrong, girl? Take it," he said, annoyed again.

"Don't I have to know how to channel my chakra…places?" she asked incredulously.

"Don't screw around. You obviously know how to do that already."

"If I knew how, I would already have taken the damn paper!" she growled, but then remembered the small crater a few feet over and paused.

"Oh."

"'Oh' indeed, baka girl. Now take the freaking paper before I shove it down your throat."

"I do believe that according to damn people, I have been almost legally renamed 'girl'," she said sarcastically while snatching the paper from the man's giant blue hand.

Kisame had no time to respond, because the moment the slip touched the girl's skin it went up in white-hot flames, brutally scorching his hand. Snatching it back and cradling it against his chest, his pain was forgotten when he saw Fallyn.

Engulfed in fire so bright you could only see her silhouette, she stood there in the midst of the inferno, unharmed. From her point of view, it was like a summer breeze had blown through the wintry cave and someone had shone a searchlight in her eyes.

After a few moments of similar sensations, Fallyn began to get confused. Remembering that this was because of that damn slip of paper, she tried to halt the flow of chakra in the hand that had been holding the paper (now burned to nothingness), but that only caused a small bit of whiteness to disappear.

Mind racing, she wondered what the hell was going on. She focused on the opposite hand, and slowly the whiteness disappeared there, too. That's when it clicked.

Narrowing her mind's thoughts and numbing her body, she repeated over and over in her head, _Stop stop stop stop stop stop stop. Godammit Ryuubi, STOP!_

And the flames were gone.

Kisame, who had been knocked onto his butt by the searing heat, stared curiously at the unmarred girl, but his interest was quickly lost as a hot pain ripped through his forearm. Groaning, he held it closer to his chest and turned away.

"Ack, what the hell- Kisame! What the fuck happened?" she said, surprised, and rushed over to the injured man.

"What do you think- Hey! What the hell is this? Put me down! I got burned on my arm! My _arm!_"

"Stop wiggling, you oaf, or I might drop you!" said Fallyn, whose breath had become ragged at the strain of carrying the large man on her back. She didn't exactly know where the strength had come from, but who was she to question her own good luck?

Kisame obligingly stopped wiggling, sand as they passed it he snatched up his Samehada to test Fallyn's newfound strength. She didn't slow her pace at the added weight.

The man's sword was emitting its gigglysounds, and was _pulsing_ with joy in response to the girl's chakra. In fact, when he actually _felt _it, his body was filled with a warm sensation that bordered on dangerous.

The Ryuubi's power- no, now it was _Fallyn's _power- seemed to be focusing not on only one part of the body, like normal, but on every square inch of skin. It was leaking out.

The blue man could only guess what kind of power the girl was capable of using now.

He was interrupted from his spacey musings when he was laid down on a cot in his own room. Not remembering the trip there, he decided to ignore it.

The pain had gotten to a more sedated feeling, and he looked to see that Samehada had transferred the excess chakra it had absorbed from Fallyn into his arm.

It takes a lot to satisfy Samehada.

"Fallyn?" he said, and she popped her head out of his bathroom with a questioning look.

"I can use Samehada to heal my arm, but I need you to report to Pein."

"Twitch," she muttered softly.

"…Did you just verbally portray an action?" asked Kisame, smirking slightly.

"I'm leaving now," she mumbled again and left with an ominous black cloud hanging over her head.

* * *

><p>Back in her room, Fallyn was stressing out.<p>

_Okay, so I have to talk to Pein. At the moment, I would rather have a conversation about torture strategies with Madara than talk to him about Eleven Tails crap. Dammit Kisame! Damn you and the Eleven Tails for putting me in these damn situations! _she thought furiously. Slamming her face against the wall for the umpteenth time, she slumped to the floor.

"Okay. No more spazzing. I'll just tell him I broke some of Kisame's bones and have a Fire type affinity. There. He needs absolutely no details. Yeah, that should work fine. Okay," she mumbled darkly to herself. Loosely pulling herself up, she drunkenly left her room.

* * *

><p>"So, how was the training today?"<p>

"The Eleven Tails' power is slowly taking over her body. Pretty soon she will be virtually indestructible. **She nearly broke every one of Kisame's bones with chakra fueled kicks.**"

The Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan sparkled with mischief in the shadows. "Good, good. Anything bad?"

"**Konan was there**, she was watching for Pein," said Zetsu calmly.

The man in the darkness chuckled darkly, and said, "He won't be getting anywhere. Anything else?"

"**Yes, actually**," said Black Zetsu with a mischievous grin, showing his pointed teeth. "Hey, you shouldn't talk about personal things like that, Fallyn-chan wouldn't be happy!"

With a spark of interest, Madara said, "No, no, please continue."

White Zetsu rolled his glowing yellow eyes, while Black Zetsu smirked and continued without hesitation, and launched into his retelling of the conversation between Pein and Fallyn about her past, and the reactions it gave.

When he was finished, White Zetsu had his hand covering his half of his face in exasperation, while Black Zetsu's had only widened into a full-out needle-pointed grin.

Madara's facial expression rivaled Black Zetsu's minus the pointed teeth. "Interesting… very interesting. Thank you for the information, Zetsu."

"**Oh, and one more thing. Itachi told her about their 'plan'. He certainly didn't make her feel better after what you said, either. In fact, he almost justified it**," he started snickering, and White Zetsu sighed heavily.

"Good, good. Thank you for your diligent work. Keep it up, Zetsu. You are dismissed."

Nodding, the plant-man started to dissolve into the floor. As he was going, his black half said, "**Let's go get something to eat.**"

* * *

><p>Fallyn stood hesitantly in front of Pein's office door. She raised her hand to knock for the tenth time, but again she seemed physically unable to complete the motion. She was about to just get it over with and slam her head against the door instead when Konan opened the door and stepped out. She stopped before she could step into Fallyn, and the two stared at each other for a few moments before the blue haired woman jerked her thumb towards the room with a weak smile.<p>

Exhaling slowly, she walked past the other woman who was holding the door open to grant her passage. When she had completely entered the room, the door shut with an echoing _snap._ It rang in Fallyn's ears, like the toll of a funeral bell.

Pein was sitting at his desk, doing paperwork. There were several scrolls sitting haphazardly on the edge of the desk, but the man quickly half-rolled them up and filed them away into a drawer. A fire was burning in a hearth that she had never noticed before.

He looked up when the door closed, and seemed slightly surprised to see Fallyn standing there, toying nervously with her ring. Moving the papers he had been furiously working on away and setting down his brush, he said cautiously, "Yes?"

Her eyes darted up to meet his before fluttering away to focus on something behind his face, failing at eye contact completely.

"Kisame told me to come and report to you about training today, so… I did," she said, more muttering to herself than actually speaking to him.

Staring hard at her every movement, he waited for her to continue. When she made no move to and averted her gaze to the various unidentified objects lining the shelves on the walls, he said, "So, how did it go?"

She snapped back to attention, and stuttered for a moment before saying extremely quickly, "I broke some of Kisame's bones and we did the affinity test" but it sounded more like "BrokeKisa'sbonesdidaffintest".

After a moment's pause, Pein looked at her questioningly and said, "What?"

After taking a couple of small breaths she repeated more slowly, "I broke some of Kisame's bones and took the affinity test with the paper." She felt her ears burn and lowered her head slightly so it looked like the glow from the fire instead of her face.

"Ah." She could feel his stare on the top of her head and clenched her eyes shut, hoping that he would accept that and move on.

Hope is shit.

"Is that all?"

Exhaling, she heard the smirk in his voice and knew that somehow, _somehow_ he already knew all that had happened.

Looking sideways, ashamed, she mumbled, "You already seem to know what else happened, why the hell should I have to tell you?"

Now openly smirking, he said simply, "Because it's amusing."

"Bastard, I'm not telling you anything about my freaking progress. It's not going to change my position anyways," she grumbled, glaring harshly at the pierced man.

Shocked, he said, "What are you talking about?"

Realizing her mistake, she replied quickly, "None of your damn business."

Before she could even blink, her chair had been knocked from under her and a sharp pain had erupted in her chest and thighs. When initial shock wore off, and her eyes focused on the scene before her, she found herself face to face with Pein's harsh purple-gray eyes. Opening her mouth to protest, she found that the pressure on her chest was the man's pointed knee digging into her ribcage, taking away her ability to draw an even breath, let alone speak. Coughing raggedly, she tried to squirm out of his grip, but his other knee was across her thighs.

Her arms, pinned above her head, strained to escape, and she glared forcefully into his ringed eyes. Rage spiking, she felt heat rush through her and was surprised when she heard the flesh where he was touching her start to sizzle. But even with her newfound energy, it did nothing to faze the man.

Eventually the surge of power died away and she was left limp and exhausted, to tired to resist anymore. When he felt her lungs deflate under his leg, he let up a bit to let the smallest breath pass through her lips.

"I do believe it is 'my damn business'," he whispered dangerously into her ear, and was rewarded by a frightened shiver.

Staring up at him with deer-in-headlights eyes, she nodded as much as she could while in such a position.

He made no move to get up for a few moments, relishing in the control he had over what would soon be one of the most powerful humans in the world, but eventually he gently moved off of her.

She stayed on the ground, dazed and also too exhausted to move. The day's training was finally catching up to her and her muscles had locked up.

Sighing, Pein pulled her upright and carried her back to her room. When he lay her on her bed, he said, "You will tell me tomorrow, after your training. Tomorrow you will go with Itachi, seeing as though you have already completed your training with Kisame. See you tomorrow, Fallyn." Then he turned and left.

She had already fallen asleep, so she did not here the softness of his tone when he said her name.

* * *

><p><strong>Ending Notes:<strong>

**Soooooo sorry my lovelies. I was supposed to update last weekend, but I had a weeklong camping trip and had to pack and shit… So so so sorry…**

**I edited this chapter sooo much, and I am proud. Ha.**

**I feel as though the pairing is kind of failing, because I'm adding feelings even though there's barely been any physical interaction, so… There will be more pairing justification in the upcoming chapters, just to make up for the torture I've put you hopeless romantics (like yours truly) through. Mwahahaha. Ha.**


	13. Lucky Thirteen

**Author's Notes:**

**MWAHAHAHA! I love my reviewers so very much! Thank you KishaKisha, for the lovely long and helpful review (that made me scream and evil-laugh for quite some time… my brother was laughing at me). **

**And in response to SweetIceCream, my lovely new reviewer, I am kind of fond of Black Zetsu, but he is a prick sometimes. But he was necessary to the plot… Sorry Black Zetsu for making you look like an ass for following orders!**

**yapook… It's fun to make Pein look like an over-controlling bastard. But I assure you that he won't be as bastard-ish in the upcoming romance-y parts.**

**And to EchoUchiha, if I ever get stuck, I will take you up on your offer.**

**Oh, and, uh… Spoiler Alert, for anyone who cares… It's kinda late, don't you think? I should have put this in here a looong time ago.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. But I am the proud owner of Akatsuki fingerless gloves and a Sand village headband. Suck that.**

* * *

><p>Fallyn glared after the man as he left, putting as much hatred and confusion in the glare as she could muster. Only when he was out of sight did she relax, letting her head collapse back onto the stiff pillow.<p>

The door clicked shut, and Fallyn let out a sigh. Using all the strength she had left, she rolled over, put her face into the pillow, and screamed like she should have when she was pinned.

_That's it, _she thought to herself, _I'll become more powerful than he is, and then he won't be able to kill me. I'll become stronger than all of them combined. Then no one will be able to do anything to me._

Removing her face from the pillow, she fell asleep prepared for the next few months.

* * *

><p>"Well <em>that <em>didn't go very well," muttered Pein as he entered his office. He noted Konan sitting in one of the chairs in front of his desk, and sat down across from her.

"What didn't go very well?" she asked curiously, crossing her legs, and leaning back comfortably, "Did it have anything to do with the overturned chair?" Her tone hinted that she already had a hunch.

Sighing, Pein put his head in his hands. "I think Madara has already spoken with her. I'm guessing she thinks we're going to kill her when we succeed."

Konan's amber eyes flicked over towards her friend's face quickly. "Well, you aren't, are you?"

The orange haired man stared at her from between his hands. "I don't know."

Annoyed, Konan's voice rose. "What do you mean you don't know?"

"I mean, when we succeed, she could be used against us! What if survivors start an uprising, and they brainwash her onto their own side, where she can utterly destroy us? I don't want to take that chance! It would destroy all of my dreams, all of Yahiko's dreams!" Leaning back into his chair, he buried his face into his hands once more.

Shocked into silence for a moment, she regained her voice and said in a more reasonable volume, "You took the girl from her home because she was something we needed. Now she thinks she's going to be killed. It's more likely that she'll conspiricize against us if she thinks that she is only a tool. But remember, she's a _member._ How do you think everyone else will feel if you kill a member? They'll feel like pawns, too. And then where will you go with your _dreams_?"

She stood abruptly and exited the room, leaving Pein alone with his own thoughts.

* * *

><p>"Wake up."<p>

The hazy deep voice cut through Fallyn's nightmare, and she slowly opened her eyes only to find herself staring deep into pitch black eyes. She started, and bopped foreheads with the owner of the chasm-like orbs.

They both yanked their heads away, and she furiously rubbed her head while glaring at the one who had rudely awoken her.

The perpetrator was none other than the Uchiha not afraid to hide his identity, Itachi. He had a disgruntled look on his face, and was lightly touching his forehead where it had harshly come into contact with hers.

"What the hell, Itachi?" said Fallyn, annoyed, as she dragged her creaking and cracking limbs out of bed. She stretched, and sighed contentedly as a series of popping noises emitted from various joints, causing Itachi to roll his raven eyes.

"I was trying to wake you up," he replied coolly.

She paused, and whirled on him. "You were trying to _wake me up_? So _that's _your reason for being less than two inches from my face?"

He stood unfazed, and stared expressionlessly at her. "You wouldn't wake up. I've been trying for the past five minutes. You were having a nightmare."

Freezing up with embarrassment, she grumbled about a shower and slipped into the bathroom.

As she was undressing, the man's voice came from the other side of the door, "You have ten minutes to get to the training area or I'll have you run laps for the first half of the day." Then she heard the door click shut, signaling that she was alone.

Sighing, she picked up the speed.

* * *

><p>Showered and dressed, Fallyn hurried down the hall with only three minutes left until she reached Itachi's time limit. Dodging the members who weren't on missions and were already awake, she raced down the now familiar hallways to the training room. The door was in sight,<p>

when she almost walked right into Tobi.

"Oh, sor-" she started, but lost her voice when she saw the ridiculous orange mask.

"Why, hello there Fallyn-_chan_," he said in a sickly sweet tone, crossing his arms arrogantly. "It's so nice to see you again."

Trying to snuff out her fear, she attempted to shoulder past him in hopes of reaching the training room and being saved by Itachi. Her hopes were quickly dashed as he stepped to the side, blocking her path.

Sighing, she said shakily, "What could you _possibly _want?"

He chuckled deeply, discarding his Tobi persona. The baritone sound sent shivers down her back. "Oh, I just want to chat for a little bit. Would you mind stepping in here with me?" He opened a door to his right, and gestured for her to enter.

Shaking her head vigorously, she said, "I don't give a flying fuck about what you want to talk about. There's no way in hell I'm going to 'step in there with you'." She moved to the side once more and tried to step around him, but was suddenly thrown through the open door. Hitting the wall with a sickening crack, she slumped to the floor and gripped her head as the room spun. She was vaguely aware of the door clicking and locking shut, and Madara's arms pulling her into a sitting position. When her vision cleared, she found herself leaning against the wall, Madara sitting a polite distance away.

Through a pounding headache, she mumbled, "You… bastard…"

He responded by flicking my forehead, sending a wave of agony through her skull. "Now, don't be rude, I just want to talk."

Groaning, she managed to sputter, "_Fine, _fine, whatever. Talk."

Smirking from under his mask, he started, "So, as I was walking down the halls yesterday, I heard snippets of a conversation from behind a closed door. Did anything happen when you were reporting to Leader-sama?"

Her throat closed and her stomach dropped.

Pleased by her reaction, he continued gleefully, "Judging on your reaction, I think something did. Did you by any chance bring up what I told you?"

No words would come. Cold fear sneaked up her spine. Was he mad? What was he going to do?

"Why do you look so scared? I'm not mad, I just want to know what happened."

Finally, her throat loosened. "Why do you ask questions you already know the answers to?" she said crossly.

Sharingan looking thoughtful, he said, "I don't know why. I guess it's just amusing to watch your reactions." Then the polite gap closed and she felt his hand close around her neck, cutting off her air. Her vision immediately clouded, and black shapes danced around in front of her.

"But I guess we can always get right to the point."

With his hand holding her head in place, she was forced to look into the black hole in the mask. Red glinted, and she was sucked into a world of swirling black.

She was in a genjutsu, there was no questioning that. But it was still surreal; this was her first time physically being _in _the genjutsu.

Madara was nowhere in sight, but she tried not to let her guard down, as little as that would do to help.

She was in a wasteland, with pitiful shrubs every fifteen feet or so in the packed sand. The sky swirled with crimson reds and blacks so dark they were blue, constantly shifting and changing like dye in water.

Then she felt a disturbance. Instinct coursed through her whole body, tensing muscles and sharpening senses. She spun around while stepping back, and narrowly dodged a flying shackle. But she was an idiot if she thought that was the only one there would be. Two shot out, which she also avoided. Then three, four, five, the chains kept propelling out from the ground.

Then the entire wasteland shook, and millions of chains shot up, utterly destroying the area. They wrapped around her form over and over, writhing like metal snakes until she couldn't even squirm.

Once all movement seemed to have stopped, all she could do was wait for him to show up.

She didn't have to wait very long.

When he revealed himself, the mask was gone. He was back in his original, Madara-y form, long, poofy black hair, war fan, the works. He stepped toward her bound form, and caressed her cheek.

In response, she bit his finger.

He yanked the violated appendage back and nursed it for a moment before casting a poisonous glare at her. She stared back with false bravado, knowing that that could have been a deadly mistake.

He snapped his uninjured fingers and the chains around her abdomen constricted, slowly squeezing the air from her lungs. She gasped, and the chains loosened once more.

"Now now, no need to be difficult. I'm repeating myself, and I want you to know that I _hate _repeating myself; _I just want to talk_."

Staring at the old Uchiha in disbelief, she asked incredulously, "_This _is what you call _just talking_?"

Smirking, he said, "I don't want any… _interruptions_. You are not able to access the Eleven Tails' power while in the Nightmare Realm."

"Then the chains aren't necessary."

"I think they add a nice touch."

She resisted the strong urge to slam her head against a table.

"Anyway, what I wanted to say was this; I think you already know what's going to be happening soon. The Akatsuki are going to be using you as their own Jinchuuriki to seal all of the Tailed Beasts in, and then take over the world. And when they have completed that goal, they will have no more reason to let you live. Instead of being the successful secret weapon you once were, you will then be the cause of their downfall."

That caused her to wince. "What do you mean, 'cause of their downfall'?"

With his smirk widening, he said, "Because others will want to use you against them, to try and return everything to its original war-like state."

"You speak as if you know this will happen."

"I know for a fact that they will succeed with their goal now. But everyone's loyalties can always be shifted… and we don't yet know if yours are concrete. I don't think you'll ever be able to prove them, either.

"But," he said with a glimmer of mischief in his red eyes, "I can make it so you'll live."

Staring cautiously at the man as if he were a ticking time bomb (which he was), she said carefully, "And how exactly do you think you can accomplish that?"

He stared forcefully at her, his smirk shrinking to a point where it looked just plain sinister.

"I want you to swear allegiance to _me_, and only me. You will still be part of the Akatsuki, but your loyalties must lie directly with me. That way, I can keep you alive and they wouldn't have reason to kill you. But you mustn't tell _anyone _of this, not even Zetsu. You wouldn't cross _Uchiha Madara_, would you? Because that would be just… unwise."

Mouth shaped in a small _o, _all she could do was gape. Thoughts were racing through her mind and light speed.

_What? Did he _really _just say it? I can't believe it. But what should I do? He could kill me right now if I say no, and they could just go back to getting the Tailed Beasts the old-fashioned way. I'm just a kind of luxury, right? _Would _I want to cross him? No. Never. That would be the stupidest mistake anyone could make._

_But I guess it all comes down to one question; Should I?_

Weighing the pros and cons, she decided they were pretty much breaking the scales towards the _yes _side, what with imminent or future death guaranteed on the _no._ With a pale face of resignation, she said, "Fine."

Smirking victoriously, he said, "'Fine' what?"

Her head snapped up to face him, making full eye contact. "Uchiha Madara, I swear my allegiance to you on the grounds that you keep me alive when the time comes."

Chuckling, he said, "That was a bit excessive, but I liked it. You are free to go." The chains disappeared, as did the surrounding landscape, and she was back in the room… alone. She gathered herself up, rubbed her head, at the pounding ache that resonated through her skull, and completed the way down the hall to the training room.

* * *

><p>"Five seconds late," came the immediate sound as she entered the room.<p>

Startled, she said quite unintelligently, "Huh?"

"You were five seconds late. You will be running laps the first half of the day." Itachi was leaning stoically against the wall, staring at her with glowing crimson eyes that she had come to despise.

That shocked her. Only five seconds? It had to have been more than that, even with Madara's Nightmare realm only taking up three seconds.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Itachi's voice again. "Start running."

And despite her headache, she did.

* * *

><p>By the time that the first half of the day was over, Fallyn was ready to collapse. Apparently, "first half of the day" meant six hours straight of running a very boring route repeatedly. When Itachi said she could stop, she collapsed right where she was.<p>

Walking over to her, the raven haired man said stonily, "It's good you got exercise, because we are going to be learning genjutsu."

Through her panting, she managed to say, "Why am I not surprised?"

Ignoring her sarcastic remark, he commanded, "Get up and stand on the other side of the room."

She glared sideways at him, and managed to drag her stiff muscles into a standing position. Walking over to the other side of the room, as instructed, she turned to face him.

"Genjutsu is a jutsu of illusions. Using hand seals, you project images to your opponent in hopes of confusing, distracting, unsettling, or provoking them. Genjutsu causes no physical damage, but while one is trapped in a genjutsu the caster or another may attack them in their weakened state."

Taken aback by the amount of words Itachi had said at one time, she nodded.

"Allow me to show you an example." His hands went through seals slowly for her sake, and when he had completed the final one a very bloody and broken Fallyn stood before her. She gasped, and felt a surge of chakra before the illusion evaporated, leaving her very surprised.

Itachi, too, did not seem to be expecting that. He stared, looking slightly confused, at where his gory genjutsu used to be before turning to face her.

"Apparently you have found a new way to break the most basic genjutsu there is. Now, do you think you can imitate what I did? Remake the hand seals and focus on projecting an image in your mind."

With an air of purpose, she sloppily imitated his hand seals and produced a very dilapidated blob of organs.

"Dammit," she swore under her breath, and released the jutsu. She turned to Itachi for guidance.

His eyes held a slight glimmer of amusement at her disgusting mistake, and he said, "I will show you the hand seals once more, but pay close attention. You must get them perfect in order to complete the genjutsu." He repeated his previous actions, and stepped aside to watch her try again.

The second time was better, but not by much. The organs now had a layer of rotting skin over it. It produced an acrid smell, so she quickly dismissed the illusion. Before Itachi could say anything, she held her hand up to silence him and said, "I have memorized those seals. Just let me practice."

Smirking slightly, he went back to his original position against the wall to watch.

Two hours later Fallyn had successfully recreated her own bloodied form, and grinned valiantly at Itachi. He pushed himself off of the wall and came over to stand directly in front of her, about ten feet away.

"Now produce another illusion."

Her smile faded, replaced by a look of utter determination. She executed the hand seals perfectly, and focused on the one illusion that she could think of at that moment-

Young Sasuke.

As the small boy appeared in front of Itachi, his face drained of color and he looked slightly sick. He staggered slightly and the illusion disappeared. Whipping his head up, he glared at her, Mangekyou on full blast. As she was sucked into the Nightmare Realm for the second time, she heard Itachi's echoing voice, "If you want to play that way, we can."

Everything flashed white, which startled her because she was, after all, in the Nightmare Realm, where colors where usually variations of red and black.

She clamped her eyes shut to block out the blinding light, and fell to her knees when a searing pain ripped through her entire body. Only when the pain sank into nonexistence did she open her eyes.

And boy, was she surprised at what she saw.

She was standing in a field of golden grass, noontime sun shining warmly upon her back. Kneeling in the strands of yellow she found herself back in her normal clothes, a T-shirt and jeans, trusty Converse hugging her feet.

Shakily, she stood, and looked around. The landscape resembled a jagged bowl, mountains surrounding the shining field, snow tipping the peaks. There were no trees, just grass the color of honey.

So she started to walk.

Eventually she started to run.

And then a feeling gripped her, knotting her stomach and making her skid to a stop and spin around.

And facing her, not ten feet away, were her parents.

And they were smiling, real, genuine smiles.

Her mother was normally a harsh, skinny woman, all angles and no curves, wearing clothing that accented that. Her hair was always in a messy bun, her sharp blue eyes cold with anger. Now she was wearing a flowing white sundress, her hair cascading down her back, cobalt eyes sparkling with joy.

Her father was a strong, burly man whose shaved head and dark brown eyes radiated hatred. But now he looked at her with the kind of look every daughter deserves from a father, his crude thin lips stretching into a warm smile.

It was enough to make Fallyn weak.

"Hi, sweetie," chirped her mother, clapping her hands together and cocking her head lovingly.

"Hello, Reena*," said her father fondly, his smile widening.

To shocked to speak, she fell to her knees, arms hanging limply at her sides. Her parents rushed over, a look of shock painted on their faces that made Fallyn sick to her stomach.

"Honey, are you all right? Do you feel sick? Maybe we should get you some medicine," cried her mother frantically, holding her hands to the girl's forehead. The black haired girl recoiled from her mother's touch as if it burned her.

As this was happening, Itachi watched as a single tear ran down her face, though she remained looking lost, trancelike.

"Sweetie, what's wrong?" repeated her father, hovering nervously over his wife's shoulder. His voice made her wince, and as he tried to put a comforting hand on her shoulder, she brushed it away and stood quickly, eyes and fists clenched shut.

"Stop touching me! Go away! Stop it! Who _are _you?" she yelled past the knot in her throat, though no tears were falling. She took one last look at their shocked and hurt faces before turning around and sprinting away.

The genjutsu broke.

She stood, dazed, tears openly streaming down her cheeks. Choking down a sob, she bowed to Itachi, and then ran. She ran down the halls, weaving in and out of passageways, before coming to the boulder blocking the entrance. Not bothering with the hand seal in her emotional inner torrent, she punched the rock and ran through the debris.

It was raining outside, which comforted her a little. She had grown up in the rain, and now it felt as if the sky was crying with her. Staring up at the gray clouds, she let the water mix with her own tears, and sobbed. And sobbed.

She hadn't cried since she was seven. All of the emotional tension had finally bubbled over when she saw them smiling at her.

What broke her heart was that those smiles looked genuine.

Ever since she was little, she had wished that they would smile at her.

They never did.

Everything she did to please them only seemed to make them hate her more.

And all she could remember thinking of was

Why?

A terrible pounding reverberated through her chest, and she laid down on the soft grass, staring up at the oncoming water, infinite. She shut her eyes, squeezing out the last few salt tears, and sighed.

Then she didn't feel the water anymore. It was still raining, just not on her. Cracking her eyes open, she was not expecting to see Pein leaning over her, cloak hanging over his head as a shield from the oncoming barrage of water droplets.

"If you stay out here too long, you'll catch something," he said calmly, looking down at her. "Come on, time to go back inside."

Using the arm that wasn't supporting the canopy that was his cloak, he pulled her up, letting his upraised arm surround her with the fabric. They started walking in unison back to the base.

And all she could think about was that he smelled like apples.

* * *

><p><strong>Ending Notes:<strong>

***For those of you that don't remember, she used to be named Reena.**

**Pairing scene… I love it**

**I wanted to update for you guys sooooo bad because I love you.**

**That, and I wanted to give myself a birthday present.**

**BECAUSE IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! I'm thirteen! Yep, I lied to the FF peoples, but now they can't bust me! Ha!**

**MY FRIEND GOT ME NARUTO TRADING CARDS! IT HAD ALL OF THE SIX PATHS OF PAIN AND THE AME ORPHANS! And I also got a rice maker X3 And Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess. I'm already on the third temple.**

**Toodles, my lovelies!**


	14. Fireworks 2

**Author's Notes:**

**Not much to say here today…Except to thank my reviewers. Oh.. and… Two things. One, Sorry for any mistakes, I don't really feel like editing at the moment. If you see a mistake, use your brains and figure out what I meant. Two, I have a surprise for you guys in this chapter… Or two… ;3**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Naruto, but I am the not-so-very proud owner of a broken rice maker. TT~TT**

* * *

><p>Fallyn awoke in her bed, cuddled up against Pein's Akatsuki cloak. She breathed in the scent of ripe apples and almost fell back asleep, when the soft sound of someone lightly snoring turned her from groggy to alert.<p>

Lifting her head slightly from the silky folds of the cloak, her golden eyes fell on the shadowy form of a man.

She rolled off the bed and landed on her hands and knees, dragging the cloak with her. Standing up, she shuffled over to the light switch and flicked it on unceremoniously, turning to face the mystery man in her room.

Pein was slumped against the cool rock walls of her room, sitting on a mound of her blankets, asleep. His face was the epitome of peaceful, head resting on his shoulder.

He stirred slightly when the lights flickered on, but she quickly shut them off, sending the room into hazy blackness once more. When his breathing returned to its normal rhythmic pace, she moved slowly back over to her bed, retrieved the cloak from the floor, and covered him gently with it. Slinking back to the door, she was almost out when his voice froze her in her tracks.

"Nngh… Wait, come back," he mumbled sleepily, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

Sighing, she shut the door and turned around to face the man. "Yes?"

"Sit," he commanded in a tired leader-tone. Knowing she had no choice, she complied, and sat on her bed.

"Would you mind telling me the reason you were out in the rain yesterday?"

He obviously left out the part of her crying, not knowing if she would be touchy about that particular detail.

Looking away, she mumbled, "I… um…" She frantically searched for a lie in her mind, but came up with nothing.

Staring hard at the girl, he said dangerously, "The truth."

Hanging her head in defeat, she said, "Alright, fine. I pissed off Itachi when I was learning genjutsu by showing his little brother when he was young. Itachi used his Mangekyou on me and I saw my parents except they were… they were…" She couldn't squeeze the rest of her sentence around the knot that had formed in her throat, and she stared intensely at a spot on the wall, blinking furiously to shove the tears away.

That was the one scenario Pein was definitely not expecting. And also not the reaction he was expecting. If he had thought it through to a deeper extent, he might have realized that asking her what had made her cry would make her cry _again,_ but that was not the case, so he was not in the least bit prepared.

"Ah… Sorry, didn't mean to… to…" He was at a loss of what to say.

Her eyes flicked over to him, but quickly returned to their spot on the wall. "It's fine, it's fine, don't worry about it, my tear glands just have started to hate me for the past twenty four hours. It's my fault anyway; I was stupid to bring that up after the kid died."

Hovering awkwardly a polite distance away, Pein had no idea what he was supposed to be doing. Konan had never done stuff like this, at least not that he was aware of.

Once she was sure the tears had been suppressed for the next few moments, Fallyn looked the orange haired man straight in the eyes and said, "Will that be all? I was hoping to take a day off from training and go shopping again. There're a few things I need to pick up."

"Um, of course. Go ahead. I haven't established a teacher for your taijutsu yet anyway." That was a lie, but hey, whatever.

Nodding, she cocked her head towards the door, and he hurriedly made his way over to the exit. But right before he could completely leave her bedroom, she said, "Thank you. For yesterday. That was really kind. I needed that."

He paused, noting the sincerity in her words. Cracking the door a little farther, he peered through and said, "I know. I did too."

The door clicked shut, and she listened as his steps echoed down the halls until they were no more.

And the crisp smell of apples lingered in her room for hours.

* * *

><p>When she finally emerged from her room, she was showered, dressed, and ready for action. Walking down the hall to the training room, she peered into see Hidan and Kakuzu sparring. She entered quietly, and watched the two men fight.<p>

It was only when Hidan was injured beyond the point of continuing that they finally stopped, and finally noticed her. Kakuzu acknowledged her presence with a nod of his head, but Hidan completely ignored her until the other man had stitched all his wounds.

"What do you want, bitch?" demanded Hidan impatiently, not liking the piercing stare that she was aiming at him.

"Actually, I was wondering if I could steal your partner for a little while so that we could go and purchase a few items at a nearby market."

Kakuzu groaned, but Hidan only said, "I don't give a flying fuck where he goes. I can perform a ritual now." He made to leave, but Fallyn stopped him.

"I don't know if you are even interested, but I have to ask. Do you want to accompany us?"

The man snorted, and said arrogantly, "And why the hell should I come with you?"

Fallyn grinned, and said, "You don't _have _to come for a specific reason, but if you do I might buy you some more mochi." It was a good bribe; the man had almost ate half the box of treats.

"Done."

"Fallyn, did you have to invite the idiot along? He'll probably terrorize the people in the market," grumbled Kakuzu, glaring at the smirking silver haired man.

"Ah ah, no complaining dear. And besides, he won't terrorize the people because then I'll have to send him home."

"Do you really think you'll be able to send me back, bitch?" he said cockily, crossing his arms.

Looking thoughtful, she put her finger to her lips and cocked her head. "I guess not. Maybe I'll just have to buy Kakuzu dear some mochi instead of you." An evil smile grew on her face as she saw his horrified expression.

"Fine! I won't. I hope Jashin deals you a horrible and painful death, bitch. Preferably caused by me," he grumbled darkly, causing her to laugh.

Patting his head, she said happily, "Aw, I love you too Hidan. But now, we depart for the market. Well, that is, after I see if any of the other members who aren't on missions want to come too."

"They're all here, Fallyn," said Kakuzu. "We haven't had any missions since we came back. We're all waiting for you to finish training, then we'll move out as the full Akatsuki to gather the biju."

She paused, then said, "Oh. Alright then. Stay here, and I'll go ask everyone." Kakuzu groaned again, and Hidan didn't say anything. She turned, and exited.

* * *

><p>When she was finished making her rounds, all who she expected would come were accompanying her. Kisame, Deidara, and Tobi. She told them to go to the training room and meet up with the other two while did one last thing.<p>

She felt obligated, but she also wouldn't have minded his company. That, and it would be nice to have him around in case Madara decided to do anything. She kept telling that over and over to herself in her mind as she walked down the hall to Pein's office.

Knocking, the muffled reply of "Come in" granted her access to the room.

Konan was sitting with her legs crossed in one of the chairs, and they exchanged nods of acknowledgement before Pein said, "What do you need?"

She snapped her attention to the pierced man, and said with little confidence, "Um… I was wondering if either of you would like to accompany me and some of the others to the market."

Konan answered first, with a sweet "Oh, sorry, but I think I'll stay", and turned to Pein to hear his response.

"Um, I still have a lot of paperwork to do, so-" He was abruptly cut off when Konan interrupted.

"I can do the paperwork, if you want to go." A knowing smirk was plastered to her face, her yellow eyes sparkling with mischief. Pein shot a venomous glare at her, but she didn't flinch. She seemed to grow even more playful.

"Yeah, go ahead. You always hole yourself up in your office anyway, it'll be good to get some fresh air."

The man looked slightly exasperated, and was about to retort when Fallyn spoke up, having been so quiet he had forgotten she was there.

"Um, he doesn't have to if he doesn't feel like it, it's completely up to him. The others are probably more than enough already. We'll be back in a few hours." She turned to leave, but her "reassurance" only made the Akatsuki leader more exasperated.

"No, no, you'll need him to look after the others. I don't think they'll all listen to you, especially if Hidan is coming. He seems to… plague the others with his stupidity," said Konan, not ready to let her get away.

"Nah, Kakuzu's there, so he should keep Hidan in check. And Kisame and Deidara are pretty neutral if no one pisses them off. The only one I have to worry about is Tobi, but with promises of candy, he should be fine," said Fallyn hurriedly.

"Oh, it almost sounds like you don't want him to come," said Konan slyly, grinning now.

Pein had been utterly speechless since Konan called her back. As he fought to regain his voice, the other women continued to speak.

Shocked at her bold remark, Fallyn quickly replied, "No! It's not like that, I'd be pleased if he went, but if-"

"So you _want_ him to come, is that it?" Konan was just having too much fun.

The other woman was beyond flustered, a deep red blush rising up to her cheeks and ears. She thanked god that the room was so dimly lit.

Pein finally regained his voice, and said powerfully, "That's enough. I will accompany her to the market, to make sure the other members behave. Konan, please take care of the other members, and I would appreciate it if you would do the paperwork to the best of your ability while I'm gone."

"Of course, Pein," said the blue haired woman victoriously, and plopped herself down into his large chair contentedly.

He was gone for a moment, but Fallyn soon felt his presence behind her. "Let's go," he said softly, and he was so close that his breath tickled her ear. Suppressing a shiver, she opened the door and stepped out into the safe openness of the hall. He followed close behind, at a distance a little too close for comfort. His presence never seemed to move more than a foot away from her back.

Trying her best to ignore it, she attempted not to notice his closeness and began to walk down the winding passages to the training room where everyone was meeting as fast as looked normal, that room being her safety zone.

The distance from his office to that room seemed stretched almost to oblivion, and His behavior was starting to gnaw at her stomach, until it was almost unbearable. She whirled around to face him, and opened her mouth to call him on his actions when she was gently pushed against the wall. Hands snaked up around her neck, and soft lips made contact with her own, and she stared, surprised, at what he was doing.

And, with that being her first kiss, she not only stared at it, but felt it. She couldn't help but marvel at the sensation, his mouth pressed tenderly against her own.

She almost melted into the feeling when he pulled away, his eyes probing for her reaction. She stared, confused, but still in a state of almost bliss, back up at his ringed eyes. She gave a small smile, and he returned it, relieved, before bringing his head down once more, his lips making light contact with her own.

And it sent her into a state of happiness that had never occurred before.

* * *

><p>Kakuzu, as well as several of the other members, were getting impatient. What was taking her so long? They were about to go look when the door to the training room opened, revealing a rosy cheeked Fallyn. She stepped into the room, and was followed by Pein. Everyone who was about to assault her with questions paused when they saw their leader.<p>

"Leader-sama, what are you doing here?" said Tobi, orange-clad head cocked to one side. Several other members nodded with their agreement to the question.

"I am here to make sure none of you do anything dangerous or shameful. I would not have had to accompany you if it was only the girl and Kakuzu, but since everyone else decided that they wanted to join the field trip…"

"Fallyn asked us to! And it's so boring; we wanted to do anything, un!" exclaimed Deidara, crossing his arms.

"I think he just wanted to come because he's lonely," jibed Hidan, smirking and crossing his arms.

"Hidan, shut up or you're going to be beaten until you are physically unable to accompany us," warned Kakuzu, staring curiously at Pein. His face remained passive, and he chose to ignore Hidan's comment.

"Um… I think it's time to go," said Fallyn quietly, her voice still shaky from the event in the hallway. Pein glanced sideways at her, but only for a second before returning his attention to his subordinates.

"Finally!" came the simultaneous response, and they exited the room.

* * *

><p>The market was near-empty when everyone managed to make it there. There had been… complications on the way, and some poor soul would find the remains of an old man sacrificed to Jashin on the road later because of these "complications".<p>

Still flustered, Fallyn kept a very polite distance away from Pein, and they herded the members around from opposite sides of the group.

It took a few hours to get all of the things on her list, but when they finally completed it they all opted to wander around. Right at that exact moment, Fallyn spotted an advertisement to a festival a few towns over.

Using her new abilities, Fallyn barely managed to run along with everyone else. She still failed to create a steady flow of chakra to her legs, so it resulted in short blasts. Other members were not spared the entertainment of her fervent cursing.

The sun was just beginning to set and shopkeepers were beginning to light the paper lanterns when they arrived at the small village. The first few festival-goers were beginning to surface, wearing brightly colored and vibrantly patterned yutakas and casual tunics and pants. Hanging up their cloaks and donning shirts (for those who went around shirtless underneath their cloaks), the group entered the streets.

Splitting up into their partners, with Fallyn and Pein accompanying Kisame, they went in separate directions under strict orders to do nothing destructive or suffer… bad, bad consequences. Fallyn had made sure that everyone was very well instructed on where they would be meeting at the end of the day, lest they be forced to search.

Starting off down a brightly lit street, the three were all very aware of the awkward tension. Fallyn was standing to Kisame's right, and Pein on his left, causing the large man to feel very claustrophobic. The heavy atmosphere was weighing down on his shoulders, and for some reason he was getting very apprehensive. Maybe it was because he was hanging out with the Akatsuki leader, who, frankly, made him a little uncomfortable.

When his uneasiness became almost unbearable, he said, "I think I heard an explosion… I'll go check on Deidara and Tobi, and make sure that they don't do anything. See you later, Fallyn, Leader-sama!" He sped off, his body becoming less than a blur.

The two left alone stared, bewildered, after the shark man. Both had not noticed the growing levels of the man's discomfort, so they were equally surprised when he made his hasty retreat.

Pein shrugged, and continued walking, and Fallyn hurried after him. After walking in silence for a moment, the girl paused, and turned around, digging her wallet (with money she had won in that card game) and walking over to a fruit stand. It took her companion a couple moments to register that she was gone, and when he turned around she was walking back towards him, munching sweetly on a green apple.(*)

He did an unnoticeable double-take, and stared at the girl oddly. "What…?"

She paused, swallowed, and said guiltily, "I like apples."

The sides of his lips twitched upward, but he did his best to suppress the smirky grin fighting its way onto his face.

Fallyn looked curiously up at him as he battled his own face, and couldn't help but laugh. "You know, you don't have to be completely expressionless all the time."

Her comment distracted him, and an unpracticed smile showed like the sun through stormclouds.

"Ha!" she said, beaming triumphantly. "I win." Taking another small bite out of the bitter fruit, she resumed her pace.

The orange haired man followed quickly after, unable to wipe the small grin off of his face.

* * *

><p>Yagura was wandering one of the small villages on the border of the Land of Grass and the Land of Rain. He had abandoned his guards, who had been keeping him from enjoying the abandoned hillside on the outskirts of the village, in order to watch the stars and wait for the soon to be coming fireworks alone.<p>

Alone, that is, before he felt a great impending chakra.

Whipping his gray head around, he ran to the nearby houses and hid in an alley, disguising his chakra levels. The chakra was moving closer and closer, and the Three Tails was stirring inside of him. _Oh, my, _it hissed giddily, _You're about to be freed of quite the burden._

"Akatsuki," Yagura growled softly, and sure enough, two figures with the telltale black and red cloaks stepped out onto the hill. One was distinctly female in body, and a few inches shorter than the second, who was definitely male. They were speaking in low tones, and he couldn't make out anything they were saying from where he was.

Suddenly, they both stopped at a signal from the woman. The man looked down at her questioningly, and she turned around, facing the houses. Yagura saw her eyes, glowing dully, a rich amber, scanning over the area before stopping right at his alley.

Staring straight at him.

He ran out of his hiding place, drawing his hook, and prepared to leap on the pair when he saw that they had disappeared. Turning quickly around, he brought his hook up and barely blocked a black rod shooting at his face. Flipping backwards, Yagura created a shadow clone with a few quick hand seals, and they stood back to back, hook staffs drawn protectively in front of their bodies, watchfully searching for the slightest hint of movement.

The two Akatsuki landed simultaneously in front of him, a good distance out of range of the Three Tail Jinchuuriki's weapons.

"Fallyn, it looks like your shopping trip has actually become worthwhile. Do you know who this is?" said the man in a deep baritone, a smirk in his voice.

At that point, the fireworks decided to start, and the flashes of bright fire illuminated each other's faces.

Spiky orange hair, dark eyes with some kind of pattern, facial piercings. Short, shaggy black hair, bright golden eyes, what looked like a scar on the cheek.

Gray hair, light magenta eyes, stitched scar. A double pronged hook with a flower. Kirigakure symbol on the forehead protector.

"Oh my, it looks like the Three Tails Jinchuuriki, the Mizukage, Yagura," said the woman, Fallyn, recalling all of the information on websites she had read before.

The man looked slightly irritated, but he responded with "Why yes, is. How lucky we were to have him come to us and save the rip all the way to the Village of the Bloody Mist."

The woman stiffened suddenly, and Yagura felt the pressure of the powerful chakra from earlier surge from her. He felt an unsettling burn in the flow of his chakra, and the Three Tails' chakra stirred inside of him. Trying to maintain both concentration and control over the beast, he said, "Who are you?"

The man responded, the woman still stiff and in some kind of trance. "You know where we are from, but you need not know who we are."

"The woman. What is she?" he said, changing tactics.

As yet another firework exploded, Yagura saw the man's evil smirk. "Why don't you ask your beast."

"My 'beast' is not the one to ask."

The air was beginning to grow warm. Fallyn started to tremble. The man ignored her.

Glorious reds and oranges shot across the sky, illuminating the man's shrug. "Then you'll have to find out yourself."

The woman whispered, "Pein. Stop… and step back. Please."

Heat was burning through the air, making it thick and soupy. The gray haired man was having trouble breathing. _What _is _this girl?_

The pierced man narrowed his eyes, but did as the woman said.

"Yagura." Her voice was husky and trembling. "You hold the Three Tailed Turtle, correct?" Her voice was echoed by something deeper, ancient.

"That is correct. What do you hold, girl?" The heat destroyed his clone. A thick sheen of sweat covered his body.

Her stare shone almost sinisterly, her pupils becoming thin black slits. A shady black-gray mist spread around the scene centered around Fallyn and occasionally making the rare formation of what seemed like an appendage. Fireworks lit small areas of the dark film, resulting in a melancholy strobe light.

A tendril of the haze stretched over towards Yagura, and for the first time in years, the Three Tails Cloak made an appearance.

Fallyn/Ryuubi walked out of the fog and made their way over to a thoroughly confused Yagura, who wasn't feeling the normal uncontrollable sensation that he was once accustomed to when the green chakra covered him. Golden eyes flashing, the girl placed her hand flat onto the grassy screen, and it quickly crawled up her arm like a living glove.

Creeping up Fallyn's body, it seeped into her smirking, slightly parted mouth, until it had completely consumed the cloud, leaving a shaking Yagura. Staring up at her with large fuchsia eyes, he collapsed in a jumbled heap.

Pein, who had distanced himself considerably from Fallyn once the black gloom had surrounded her, walked over to the man and placed his fingers against his throat.

Turning to face her with a hint of disbelief in his ringed eyes, he said slowly, "He's still alive. Very much alive."

The remnants of the blackish vapor faded into nothingness, and she gave him a weak smile before she, too, fell to the ground in a pile.

Abandoning the former Jinchuuriki, Pein was immediately by his fallen comrade's side, helping her into a sitting position. Shaking her head and rubbing her eyes furiously, she winced as a second voice joined the Ryuubi's, who had resurfaced after absorbing the Three Tails. The two conversed inside of her head, and she had trouble hearing things outside of her mind.

"-lyn! Fallyn!" Pein's voice slowly became clearer over the sound of Tailed Beasts.

"Dammit…" she said, squeezing her temples with the palms of her hands, "SHUT UP!"

The voices went silent. So did Pein.

"Fallyn, what are you talking about?" he said calmly, staring at her questioningly.

"The… Three Tails… Not you."

"Hm. Never mind, that will be addressed later. But now, we must gather the other members and get back to the base."

Slinging one of her arms over his shoulders, he put his other hand around her waist and hoisted her up. They began walking back towards the village when a low rustle made Pein pause.

Pause just a tad too late.

Yagura plunged his hook Fallyn, aiming for her heart, but his focus was still foggy and instead impaled her just below the collarbone.

Gasping, she wrenched her hand out of her companions grip and pressed on the gushing wound, crimson liquids pouring everywhere.

Pein wasted no time disarming the other man and plunging black rods into his legs.

Poising a final rod above his heart, he was about to end the Mizukage's life when Fallyn dragged herself over to him and pushed the spike aside.

"He was going to die… if he was sealed into the Statue," rasped Fallyn, trying not to scream whenever she used her vocal chords, and still trying in vain to stop the flood of blood. "But he didn't. Why kill him now?"

"Then what do _you_ want to do about him?" asked Pein, thoroughly irritated at being told not to kill the man.

"I have guards looking for me. They'll kill you Akatsuki bastards," said Yagura with a strained voice, trying desperately to remove the metal rods from his legs… and the ground under them.

Wincing, Fallyn looked up at Pein expectantly.

"Alright, _fine_. We'll let the guards have him. But I'm not helping him move."

Looking up at the leader of the Akatsuki with a disdainful expression, she attempted to stand and help Yagura, but the lack of blood made her black out for a moment and fall back to the floor with a small yelp.

Looking down at her worriedly, Pein attempted to pick her up, but she brushed his hands away and pointed at the bleeding Yagura insistently. Giving her an exasperated look, Pein forcefully dislodged the poles from the man's thighs, slung him over his shoulders, and raced to put the man into the street (despite his screams and struggles) before returning back to Fallyn in the expanse if four seconds.

Gently picking her up, as not to disturb her wound too much, Pein bolted to the meeting place, where all of the other members were loitering. When their leader landed lightly in front of them, they scanned over his burden before looking up at the orange haired man with worried expressions. Even Hidan looked mildly concerned.

Without a word, they all simultaneously took off towards the base.

* * *

><p><strong>Ending Notes:<strong>

**GAH! I am so so so so so so so so so so so sorry, guys (if there are any) and lovely ladies. I haven't updated in two weeks… So I tried to make this chapter spectacular. I'm sorry if that doesn't satisfy your anger. Truly.**

**On a lighter note, I have to thank TearsoftheFallen for having such an extensive conversation with me. I hope we can continue that.**

**I also have to thank the people of for the last couple scenes. It helped a lot.**

**Oh, and I'm drawing Fallyn… so she should be the first thing on my DeviantArt soon. I'll put the link up when it's up.**

***Mwahahaha, Apples.**

**I WENT TO WARPED TOUR! ANYONE ELSE? Black Veil Brides and D.R.U.G.S! WOOT!**


	15. Mind Games and the Outer Path Adventure

**Author's Notes:**

**Gah… Sorry for the lateness… I kinda went on vacation and… well… didn't have computer access. Whoops.**

**Aaaanyways, it seems to me like it's coming along pretty nicely… But I'm considering rewriting the first couple chapters… I'll tell you guys if I do, because you might want to read it…**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, why the hell would I be writing this?**

* * *

><p>Fallyn was in a hazy dream, the area surrounding her pure white. There was complete silence. She couldn't even hear herself breathe.<p>

She couldn't feel anything, could not see her body, but she felt as if she was moving, which was challenging to confirm considering she couldn't see herself. The landscape was so bright it seemed to be moving, roiling and swirling, but maybe that was an illusion.

Then, suddenly, everything was black. She looked behind her and saw a wall of white, tendrils reaching out into the blackness and being swallowed immediately. Mist. Explains why she couldn't see herself. As did the darkness.

Facing back into the darkness, she saw the smallest glimmer of light far off into the distance, like the faintest star on the darkest night. Keeping her eyes on the spot of light, she started moving purposefully towards the flicker. It disappeared occasionally, but she kept her golden eyes trained on the spot until it reappeared.

It seemed like hours. The glint never seemed to move closer. Irritated, Fallyn tried to run, but the black around her became thick and slow, like moving through mud. Shocked, she stopped moving, and the air cleared once more, allowing free movement.

"Fuck this! Where the hell am I?" she yelled, but her words seemed to be strangled in the boggy murk.

After a few more steps, she stopped, and just stared at the dot of light. She willed it to become larger, to account for the distance she must have traveled, but nothing happened.

"Dammit!" she screamed, and tried to run once more, but was immediately suppressed by the mucky air. This time she did not stop, and continued to push through whatever was restraining her.

The light disappeared, and Fallyn momentarily lost heart, but then continued to charge forward, convinced that whatever she was fighting through had obscured it.

The light appeared once more, larger and brighter this time. Grinning, the woman burst out with renewed energy.

Abruptly, she stopped.

The light was getting increasingly larger and larger, rushing towards her with great speed. It grew to an unimaginable size, and engulfed her, blindingly bright. Clenching her eyes shut, Fallyn was pushed over by the momentum.

Then all was still. Opening one eye to peek out, she quickly opened the other and gaped at the surroundings she had only seen in Naruto's mind.

Surrounded by nine large cages, in a round room lit by low torches, Fallyn spun around, trying to take in the whole thing at once. All cage doors were open except one, which was shut tight and sealed with a tag. Greenish mist leaked from between the bars.

"Oh God… They were telling the truth," she muttered, staring wide-eyed and the closed cage, and at the glowing eyes peering back at her coolly.

"Of course they were telling the truth, you stupid girl," came an irritated voice from behind her. Whirling around, she almost bumped into a floating…something. Stumbling back and toppling onto the floor, Fallyn was shocked at what she saw.

A dragon, maybe three feet long and two feet high was hovering in the air, five foot wingspan flapping slowly. It had a long, sharp, dimensional face covered in dark gray plates, the junction between the head and neck covered with spikes, like a helmet. It had a long, gracefully curved neck and a narrow body, very thin and lean, with lanky, muscular limbs tipped with savage claws that looked like a crystal had trapped wisps of darkness in their centers. Its lengthy tail was tipped with a vicious isoscele. Its grayish wing membrane was stretched and slightly torn at the ends, giving them a beautiful yet ragged appearance. Intelligent amber eyes practically glowed next to their dark surroundings. Its whole body was covered in shiny black scales, not unlike obsidian.

"What the hell are you gaping at, girl? Stand up, you look like an idiot on the floor," it snapped at her. Fallyn found its size quite amusing, and started giggling. This _is the mighty Eleven Tails? Poor Pein and Madara, how disappointed they'll be_, she thought.

"I heard that. It's because your lazy ass has only collected one biju. Once you get all of them, I'll be able to squish you with one claw," it growled, landing with a slight thump and baring its many sharp teeth at the girl, who stopped laughing abruptly.

Eyeing her dangerously, the creature took to the air again and glided over to the closed cage, landing on a small protrusion from the wall. It knocked on the bars, and a low growl that reverberated throughout Fallyn's bones came from the greenish depths. The dragon laughed, or the closest sound it could make to laughing, and came back over to Fallyn, perching on her shoulder and bringing her down again with its weight.

"Stand up! I have much to tell you before you have to go back," it warned, and stepped off of her. "Weak human," it muttered.

Ignoring the insult, Fallyn stood and dusted herself off. The dragon flew onto her shoulder, and she braced herself to carry its weight of at least sixty pounds on one side of her body.

"I, as you already should have guessed, am the Eleven Tails Demon Dragon. Behold me in all my _puny_ glory," it hissed, and Fallyn became quite worried for her ear so precariously close to the dragon's jaws.

"You, lazy girl, have only collected one biju. And I thought you would be better than that, what with the _whole_ Akatsuki with you. I have one measly tail. _One_. That must change very, very soon, or I don't think you'll enjoy the consequences. Oh, why did I have to be sealed in such a worthless girl?" it moaned, shaking its heavy head.

If there was one thing Fallyn hated more than her parents and messy things, it was being ridiculed. And as each insult dug the dragon's claws further into her shoulder, it shoved the words into her brain, into the constantly boiling pot that was her anger.

Fearlessly, she grabbed the muzzle of the dragon, clenching its mouth closed. She was lashed with its tail, but she bore it as she detached the creature from her shoulder.

"Do _not _insult me. Deal with what you have. If you think I'm so weak, why don't you help me learn faster?" she hissed.

The dragon glared venomously at her, and conjured fire in its throat, letting it leak out of the corners of its mouth and singe the girl's flesh. She yanked her burned skin away from the dragon and cradled it against her chest.

"It is a sad day when I am overpowered by my own Jinchuuriki. If I had at least one more tail, this wouldn't happen. I command you to get them faster, so that I can finally do away with him…"

This shocked Fallyn. "Who?"

Realizing its mistake, the dragon growled, "None of your business."

Sitting down next to the dragon, she directed her own amber eyes at the creature. "Please tell me. I don't know what I'm going to do to get out of here. I haven't the slightest idea what I am to them. I don't want to die. I don't think you do, either. We need a plan. Please," she pleaded, staring despairingly at the Eleven Tails.

It looked indignant, but then puffed out a bit of smoke (maybe a sigh) and closed its eyes for a moment.

"As much as I hate to admit it, you're right. Maybe if I help you, you won't be so incompetent…" The last part was an inaudible mutter, but Fallyn gave it a pointed glare anyway.

"First things first. I need to be able to call upon your power when it's necessary, so I can avoid any other… meetings with Madara."

"Why only Madara? Didn't that Uchiha tell you that Pein was skeptical about what to do with you too?"

Fallyn furrowed her brow. "You were there when… _that _happened, weren't you? That kind of made me doubt everything I've been told… Not saying that I trust him, but I'm not sure about his motives anymore." She paused, looking thoughtful, and then realization slowly dawned on her face.

"You want to kill Nagato, don't you?"

She received a glare as confirmation.

"Many years ago, I wandered the earth in my true form. But then people started to appear. They formed villages, and once worshipped me as a god. I only harmed those who had evil in their hearts. I helped harvests, protected them from natural disasters. It was a time of peace.

"But… Then a man called the Sage of Six Paths appeared. He taught people about chakra, how to fight… And the people began to ignore me. I made a few fields wither, let small floods come, to warn people who was really in charge. Then the Sage came to me… I still remember those cursed eyes. He split me into parts, making the other beasts. I was left a weak shadow of myself, barely a foot, couldn't even stand. He stored me in a vessel. And there I stayed, for years, watching this world corrupt through many different eyes. And I could do nothing to stop it.

"But of course, that's never the end. Then, there was Madara. He found me. I was freshly sealed in a little six year old boy's body. He killed the child and extracted me, and put some of his chakra into me, to keep track of were I was, who I was sealed inside. And he cursed me. Then he sent me to your filthy world. And it wasn't long before two Sand ninja- your disgusting parents- sealed me in their daughter, when she was still in the woman's womb. It was revolting in there. I had to be born. It was the worst experience besides being split. And now, here I am, with those two same men, one reincarnated, one immortal." It spat flame when it finished.

"Is the curse that you can't be extracted?" guessed Fallyn.

"Yes. It was for Madara's own intentions. Now no one can take me-and you- from him. That is why I must kill him. He's more dangerous that every Akatsuki put together. And the Sage of Six Paths, 'Nagato', as you call him now will die, him and his damned reincarnation, so I can satisfy my revenge and restore peace to this world, and rest once more."

Fallyn was speechless. The dragon's story was sad indeed, and fit in right among every other Akatsuki's story. And, like almost every other member, revenge was fresh in its mind. The wrong kind of revenge.

"I understand Madara, and I understand the Sage of Six Paths, but Nagato is not him. He just has the same power. The Six Paths of Pain are a kind of play on the Sage. It's not really him," defended Fallyn hurriedly.

"Yes, he is. I am sure of it."

Getting increasingly desperate, she said, "I won't let you."

Snorting bitterly, the dragon hissed, "I doubt you could stop me."

"I could. You are cursed to be forever inside me, right? If I die, I'm guessing you would too. I won't get any more biju until I have your promise. And if you even hint of breaking that promise, I'll kill myself." The Ryuubi knew she wasn't lying.

Angry, the dragon tackled the girl, pinning her with its weight and holding a dagger-sharp claw at her throat, teeth bared menacingly. "You will not tell me what to do, stupid girl," it sneered.

After regaining her composure, Fallyn responded just as dangerously, "Like you're going to kill me. That could be considered a form of suicide, right?"

A low snarl erupted from the dragon, and it looked away before crawling off of its Jinchuuriki.

"Fine. I will not kill him. My revenge will never be satisfied. You wouldn't understand; your parents have already died. You have nothing left to worry about." If the beast was human, it would be near tears.

The girl's gaze hardened. "My parents might be dead, but they left me with you. My own form of revenge will not be taken care of until you are whole again, and I can control you. Only then will those assholes truly be out of my life."

They stared at each other with the same amount of cold determination.

"The Akatsuki already have two Tailed Beasts inside of the Statue. They know the whereabouts of most of the others. Naruto and the Kyuubi will come last, so that our strengths will match and we have a chance," said the dragon.

"Once we have all of them, do you know what will happen?" asked Fallyn.

The Ryuubi averted its gaze. "No."

"Well then, we'll have to improvise once we get to that point."

"I do know one thing; once we do have all the Tailed Beasts and I am whole again, we'll be able to defeat Madara. It will be a challenging battle, of course, but if we have all of the biju, the odds are in our favor…"

Fallyn nodded. "Good."

"But for now we'll have to be very convincing with our 'loyalties' to Madara until the time comes."

Another nod of confirmation from the girl. "And what about the Three Tails? It's been pretty silent…"

The dragon rolled its luminescent eyes and said, "He doesn't want to be under your control. Yagura wasn't very kind to him. He acts like a child. I don't know how anyone is afraid of him."

"Him?" asked Fallyn, confused.

"He seems to have convinced himself that he's male." The Ryuubi seemed slightly annoyed at that, but said nothing else.

"Do you think you're any gender?"

"I believe I am female."

"A very manly female," muttered Fallyn.

"Indeed."

"Hey, wait, the Three Tails is going to be under my control?" said the woman with a shocked expression.

"Yes, that's the next thing I must address. Make your way over to him, please."

Standing and walking cautiously over to the cage, Fallyn tried to peer through the bars, but saw nothing. She was reminded of how large the Kyuubi was, and took a few steps back.

"He's not that big," said the Ryuubi, rolling her eyes. "The Kyuubi just like to be dramatic. They're all a lot bigger when they're not sealed. When they are, and have a stronger seal than the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, they're pretty small. He's about a foot long from toe to tail."

"That's puny! Why such a big cage? And how did he make that low growl?"

"Don't ask me…"

"Hey! Don't criticize me!" came a voice from inside the depths of the cage, sounding like a twelve year old boy.

"Oh, shut up," growled the dragon, irritated.

The turtle-like creature sauntered up to the edge of the cage, and glared at the Ryuubi. He was about to say something when Fallyn squealed quite suddenly and raced over to the bars of the cage. She stuck her arms through the huge poles, gathered the Three Tails into her arms and hugged him as much as she could with metal in between them.

"So adorable…" she cooed, and the Three Tails looked very confused and slightly disturbed, and the Ryuubi was restraining draconic laughter.

"Oi! Let go of me!" it cried, and Fallyn noticed it had a slight Irish accent, which only made her cuddle it more.

"Fallyn," said the Eleven Tails slowly, as to not break out in giggles. The girl turned her attention to the dragon, but did not relinquish the distressed Tailed Beast.

"Please remove the seal and continue this lovefest inside."

Without thinking, she ripped off the paper, unsealing the Sanbi. With a gush of air, it blasted out of the cage and filled the room with its hulking presence.

Fallyn glared at the dragon for tricking her into causing the cute creature to become this large monster. The Ryuubi was perched on its head, beckoning her. She jumped up the body of the beast and met the Eleven Tails.

"You need to figure out a way to get this creature under your control. If you do, It will return to its small state. Good luck," said the dragon, and flew away to a safe area.

Confused, Fallyn stood for a couple moments, then slowly crawled down over the creature's ridges to face it.

"Hello there, Sanbi," she said, and smiled sheepishly.

"What do you want, you creepy lady?" it said in a voice that had graduated from twelve year old to fourteen year old. Not much of a change.

"Hey, I'm not creepy! You were just cute!" she said defensively.

"Creepy."

"Stop it!"

"No."

"Gah!" She flicked the creature in the forehead, and it recoiled instantly, sending her flying.

"You flicked me!" it protested.

"Yes, I did! You were being a jerk!"

The beast went silent.

"What?" said Fallyn, shocked and kind of worried.

"Yagura was a jerk. I'm not like Yagura. I'm not a jerk."

An incredulous look on her face, she said, "You were just acting like one!"

"No I wasn't!"

"Just forget it! Never mind. I have something I need to talk to you about."

"I'm not going to talk to you until you take it back."

"Oh, you've _got _to be kidding me…"

"Take it back."

"Stop acting like a child!"

"Then take it back!"

"Fine!" she yelled, throwing her hands up into the air exasperatedly.

"What do you want to talk about?"

"Um… I was wondering if you would let me use your power every once in a while…"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because you're gonna treat me like Yagura."

"I will not!"

"He always yelled at me."

She stopped yelling.

"Look, I just need your help. Bad people will hurt me if you don't agree to this."

"I don't care."

"Why?"

"Because I don't like being controlled."

"Why, does it hurt?"

"No, it tickles."

She sighed to keep herself from screaming at him, and changed tactics.

"Hey, Sanbi-san, do you like candy?"

"What's candy?"

"It's this really sweet food, and it tastes really good."

"I don't have to eat."

She almost jumped off of the creature to end her life.

"What would it take for you to let me control you?"

The creature looked thoughtful for a moment.

"I want you to tell me stories."

_You've got to be kidding me,_ she thought.

Putting on a strained smile, she said, "Anything else?"

"Yeah. I need you to scratch my tail."

Her eye twitched.

"Which one?"

"Middle one. It's been itching for ages."

Clambering over the beasts shell, she quickly saw the problem.

"Um… Sanbi-san, there's a small shark on your tail."

"Really?"

"Yeah… It's biting you. I think it's dead."

"Oh. Can you get it off?"

"Suuure."

Fallyn spent the next fifteen minutes prying the shark from the Turtle's tail.

"Aaaah," it sighed contentedly.

"So, will you let me control you occasionally now?"

"You'll have to tell me a story every time you use me."

"Alright."

"Then fine. Come here please."

She sprinted back over to the creature's face.

"Stand in front of me."

She jumped down.

It bent its face down to her…

And licked her.

"Euch!" she yelled, wiping spit off of her clothes.

It glowed green, and seemed to be fused with chakra.

"There we go. All done. I'm looking forward to your stories."

It lumbered back into its cage, slowly decreasing in size.

As the gates closed, Fallyn slapped the seal paper back onto the metal hastily.

The Ryuubi landed next to the girl, startling her.

"You called him Sanbi-san. I now expect to be called Ryuubi-sama."

She looked prepared to rip her short hair out.

"Okay, maybe we'll come back to that later. Anyways, you're all healed now, and you've done all you need to, so… See you next two demons."

* * *

><p>Fallyn snapped awake, much to the surprise of the Akatsuki surrounding her mat. She was in one of the larger caverns, probably because it had to accommodate every Akatsuki member. Several were napping, others looked bored, but only three looked genuinely worried.<p>

Konan, Pein, and Tobi. Okay, maybe "worried" isn't the right word for Tobi.

"She's awake! She's awake!" the masked man screamed when he saw her open her eyes, catching the attention of several Akatsuki members.

Hidan, who had been one of the nappers, jerked awake and, once he was aware of what was happening, said, "Well, for fuck's sake! Finally!" earning him a whack from Kakuzu.

Propping herself up on the table, she was quickly shoved back down by the stitched man.

"Don't move! You'll reopen your wound," he said angrily. Looking down, Fallyn noticed that her shirt had been torn off and bandages were adorning her shoulder, part of her chest and her neck. Otherwise she was just wearing her bra.

"Gah!" she started, and pulled her pillow from under her head to cover her exposed chest.

"Sorry, it was the only way to get to it. I did protest, but… Your life, or your dignity?" said Konan apologetically.

"Dignity," muttered the woman, pressing the pillow closer to her body.

"Quite the rack, bitch," muttered a smirking Hidan, and Kakuzu hit him again.

Fallyn threw the pillow at Hidan's head with her injured arm, and pulled Konan down in front of her as a meat shield.

"What the hell?" said Kakuzu, who had just seen the girl who had been impaled quite a depth with a metal hook throw a pillow strongly. He pushed her down and cut her bandages off.

Her skin was completely healed, and the stitches he had sewn onto her were lying in a heap, pushed out of her skin. They slithered back into the seams in his dark arms.

Pein leaned over and examined the skin. "Obviously, having both the Eleven Tails and the Three Tails is extremely helpful in healing situations."

Konan shoved them both away and covered her with Deidara's Akatsuki cloak, which had been discarded on the floor because of the heat in the room.

"Konan, wait, we need to discuss important matters," called Pein.

"You can 'discuss important matters' after she's dressed."

And that was the end of that.

* * *

><p>About an hour later, after Fallyn had washed and Konan had located a shirt exactly the same as the one the Jinchuuriki had lost, the pair entered the room once again.<p>

"Finally," hissed Hidan, and stared warningly at Kakuzu, who made no move to hit the Jashinist. Apparently he agreed.

"Silence," said Fallyn, annoyed, "I can take as much fucking time as I want."

Several members were about to retort, but Pein raised a hand to quiet them.

"Alright, let's just get this over with. Fallyn, do you know how you did… what you did earlier?" he asked.

"…Not really, no."

He looked like he was about to say something, but closed his mouth again. He repeated this action several times.

"Can I go to the Gedo Statue, please?" she asked impatiently.

Furrowing his brow slightly, he was about to deny her when she turned and started walking down the hall.

"It's this way, right?" she said without turning to face whoever she was talking to.

Deidara started to say something, but she was gone.

No one followed her.

* * *

><p>"Let's see…" mumbled Fallyn, following the confusing directions the Ryuubi was giving her while trying to listen to the Sanbi.<p>

_You stupid girl, I told you left two turns ago, and now I've lost it. Turn around, _hissed the dragon.

_And then he would step on me when he came to visit… And he would keep yelling at me, telling me I was evil… _said the Sanbi despairingly, some parts of his sentence louder than the dragon, drowning her out.

"You know what? I'll go whichever way I want to go," she cried. Turning around, she twisted her way through several caverns.

Even then, it took her at least an hour before she located the large statue.

_Finally, you idiot, _snarled the Ryuubi, but Fallyn ignored her to prevent an argument with what seemed like herself.

_Walk up to it, climb until you get the closest you can to his mouth…_ the dragon trailed off, and Fallyn stopped, confused.

"And then?" she questioned.

_Unfortunately, you have to figure that part out for yourself._

"What?" she exclaimed, but the Ryuubi didn't answer again.

"Damn dragon…" she muttered, and jumped up onto the statue's jutting chin.

She spent the next several minutes knocking on its closed mouth and surroundings, trying to find a latch, and button, anything.

"What the hell am I supposed to do?" she said, thoroughly exasperated, and she kicked the mouth of the creature.

Unfortunately, nothing happened, as she was hoping.

Sitting down on the tip of the statue's chin, she stared at it, scouring its face for abnormalities, anything. Then she was struck my the sudden urge to do something she had been dying to see for herself ever since she saw the structure in the anime.

Stretching as far as she could, she reached for the blindfold, using her other arm to keep herself stable and provide a few extra inches to her reach.

Fingertips grazing the brittle cloth, she scooted her toes to the very edge of the ledge and barely grasped the gray linen.

Lifting it slightly, she tried to peer up into it, but it was too dark in the cave to see anything under the shadow of the dusty fabric.

Pulling it farther, it fell off, revealing the nine eyes. Two were opened already, and the others were closed. Nothing had changed.

But then again, upon closer inspection, there was a very small eye, directly under the one in the center. She almost missed it, it was so tiny.

It was almost in her reach, and she brushed the sandy surface only a few inches under the tenth eye. Determined, she focused chakra to her fingers, and it creeped out of her fingertips, coming in light contact with the bottom eyelid.

It shot open immediately, revealing Rinnegan. Looking around jerkily, it quickly located Fallyn and locked onto her, pupils getting thinner as it focused. She couldn't help but notice that it looked vaguely maniac. She was held in its trance, like a mouse in a snake's gaze. Only when she herd groaning and felt herself shaking was she broken from her daze.

Whirling around, she was horrified by the sight before her. The hands that usually held the nine- ten- Akatsuki members were ripping themselves from the cave floor, bring them close and closer to its face. The monstrously large hands blocked all directions of escape, so Fallyn had to watch as they closed her in their stony grip. The mouth creaked open, and she was tossed into the rectangular hole, barely missing pointed teeth.

She landed with a hollow thud on a cold, granite-like floor in a damp, earthy passageway. Sore and disgruntled, she dragged herself out of her awkward position on the ground and stood, bumping her head on the low ceiling. Hunched over, she tried to take in her surroundings, but it was pitch black.

Feeling her way along the passageway walls, she came to a lit stone hallway. The source of the greenish light couldn't be seen, but Fallyn was still grateful for the illumination.

Walking down the corridor cautiously, being reminded of Egyptian temples filled with deadly temples, she slowly came to the end, which had a cage door. From inside, swirling blue mist rolled out incessantly.

_Lovely job… Maybe you do have some uses. Or you're just lucky. Now, if it's not obvious, this is Two Tails. Remove the seal in the corner of the door, and spread your arms open immediately, so you can catch it. _The Ryuubi's voice started to remind her of an instruction manual. She seemed to know everything, but only let information out when the time arose, which wasn't extremely helpful.

Scanning the door, she found a sliver of paper and ripped it off, throwing her arms open wide. Black mist appeared, and surrounded her, right as a hulking blue blur zipped out of its confines. Straight into the black fog it ran, and was swallowed completely, shooting into Fallyn's body without pausing. The force sent her flying backwards, and she landed painfully on her back.

_Quick, get up! We must hurry to the One Tail, before this passage disappears, _came a new, female voice. Sure enough, the other end of the hallway was blackening.

Searching for a new exit, Fallyn twisted around and decided that the best way was through the Two Tails' cage. Sprinting through it, the back was blocked off by another set of bars. Without stopping, she shoved her arm through the bars and scrabbled for the tag. It took a few long moments, in which the darkness almost caught up with her, but her hand finally closed around the scrap of paper and yanked it off, shoving the gat open and closing it firmly behind her. After a few seconds the cage door faded into another wall.

Panting heavily, Fallyn pushed herself to keep going. Walking quickly down the hall, she came across a gap in the floor.

"Dammit, what is this? A video game?" she yelled exasperatedly, and backed up a couple steps before propelling herself across the chasm… almost. An invisible force in the center of the opening knocked her down the pit.

Falling heavily to the floor with a dull thud that knocked the breath out of the girl, she sat there for a while, trying to regain her breath. Once the oxygen had been restored to her lungs, she dragged herself off the floor and looked around.

Three passageways came together in the round room she had fallen into. The left and right were lit, the middle a murky green. Looking up, she saw that the gap had closed, and that she was back to the small ceiling. She stopped questioning the logic of this maze; there was none.

Following instincts, along with a few hints from her Tailed Beasts, she chose the middle passage. The fog smelled of decaying plants, and Fallyn held her breath as long as she could to keep out the stench.

The hallway seemed endless, and the murky vapor didn't help at all, considering it blocked everything except what was less than a foot away from her. The strong odor was making her sick and woozy, so she started to run before she blacked out.

Then, suddenly, the green was gone, as was the passage. Another unseen pit had opened up under her, taking her by surprise. This time, she landed one a metal grid.

Bars of a cage.

The choking air of sand hung in the atmosphere above the cage, getting in Fallyn's eyes and pissing her off even more than before. She quickly located the tag, ripped it off viciously, as if that sheet of paper was the cause of all the strife in the world. Her black veil snaked out and spread out to cover every inch of the air, preventing any escape.

The One Tail took a while before it came out, probably having tried to figure out a plan to escape and finding it unable to. Eventually it surrendered to the dark mist and slithered into Fallyn's body.

Then she was back outside of the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, held in one of the hands that were back in their original place. Blindfold back in place and mouth shut tight, it looked as if nothing had happened.

The Rinnegan eye was gone, but nobody would know that.

* * *

><p>In her mind, Fallyn had to go through the extensive journey to the round room from before. Once she got there and was greeted rudely by the Ryuubi, she said, "I think I'll deal with those two tomorrow." And she fell asleep in her mind, too.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Ending Notes:<strong>

**I wrote this in two days. I feel terrible. It takes me two weeks to write an eight paged chapter when I procrastinate, but I write an eleven paged chapter without interruptions in less than two days. Dammit.**

**Oh, and before I write the next chapter, I will be rewriting the first couple of chapters, because I believe they are kind of crappy.**

**I edited the first half, but not the second. Sorry for mistakes, but I'm hoping you guys are smart enough to figure it out on your own.**

**I'd really appreciate it if you R&R, but if you don't feel like it don't feel obligated.**


	16. Important Notice

**ATTENTION ALL READERS.**

**I am rewriting this story, up until Chapter Thirteen.**

**I'm sorry, but this may take a while.**

**But it'll be better.**

**Pinkie promise.**

**I'd like you all to read it when it's done, because I'm adding quite a bit…**

**And taking quite a bit out.**

**But the plot is gonna stay pretty much the same.**

**Again, I'm sorry for the time it'll take.**

**I hope you guys still read ^^'**

**~Dark Deeds of Mine**


	17. Important Notice 2

**THE FIRST TWO CHAPTERS OF THE REWRITTEN CHAPTERS HAVE BEEN POSTED.**

**IT'S UNDER THE NEW TITLE "Golden Eyes, Blackened Soul"**

**I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IT IF YOU READ AND REVIEWED.**

**I HOPE THE IMPROVEMENTS ARE TO YOU LIKING.**

~Dark Deeds of Mine


End file.
